I have seen photos of black, red, axanthic, hypo, latent, albino, and calico phases or morphs of blackhead pythons. I have also read some descriptions that say that they vary in coloration according to locality. Some may even refer to them as eastern and western varieties, while other sites say that their coloration is random and hard to define by geographic locations.

So my question is: are the bands of red or black coloration determined by locality or by genetics? If it is based on genetics, then can one clutch have babies that are black-banded and babies that are red-banded? This question should be concerning those animals that do not carry the hypo gene. Which raises another question: how do you tell the difference between a light colored red animal and a hypo individual? Thanks for any insight.

Yeah, I realize that it's 1:30 AM on Christmas Eve, so Merry Christmas. I drank too much coffee and the kids' gifts were too easy to put together, so now I'm killing time until my sleepiness overtakes the coffee.

Derek Morgan

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