Posted by:
RedArgentine
at Sat Jul 29 21:18:25 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by RedArgentine ]
Super Mojave, Super Lesser, Lesser X Phantom, Lesser X Mojave, Super Butter, etc.
In short, a true Leucistic animal could also be called Achromatophoric. As albinos are amelanistic and either don't produce melanin, or it isn't shown, a Leucistic doesn't have chromatophores or they don't work.
Chromatophores gather the pigments (xanthin, erythin, melanin) and combine them with iridiphores so that we can see the snakes with all the colors they have as well as their iridesense.
Because each of the white ball pythons has some color other than white, they can't truely be leucistic. This is just process of elimination. While I have seen Super Lessers, and Black eyes that have not other pigment, some Super Lessers have a faint stripe and some black eyes have yellow spots. Since this occurance is random, and both CAN have other color, they aren't a true leucistic mutation. The Leucistic does provide recognition, and I don't really have a problem with it being used. I just think people should realize what the animals really are. There is already enough missunderstanding on genetics.
BTW, my spelling is a little off.
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