Because no “super spider” has been shown to exist, there are two trains of thought, which were combined by goregrind in his response.

One is that spider is a dominant trait, and no super exists. If this is true, there are probably quite a few homozygous spiders out there. I have heard a FEW reports of a male spider siring all spider babies, which would indicate a homozygous sire. If dominant, a homozygous spider wouldn’t look any different from a heterozygous spider, but it would throw ALL spider babies. I think that would be quite desirable! The only way to be sure you have one would be to breed it. You could never be 100% sure, but after several years of all spider offspring, you could be purty darned sure!

The other theory is that the spider trait is lethal in its homozygous state. If this is the case, all homozygous babies die either before hatching, or shortly after. I don’t know of any studies to support that theory, except that no “super” exists.

I'm hoping for dominant!

Steve

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