Posted by:
lbenton
at Thu Aug 27 08:01:46 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by lbenton ]
The tiny melanistics had no pattern at all at such a young age....Nothing like true melanistic thayeri.....
I would really like to know what is cooked into the hybrids to make them look melanistic, people have said Mexican Black Kings, but they in a sense are just melanistic desert kings and show some hint of that pattern as juveniles, or the "best ones" that are more jet black still tend to have light freckles on the chin and along the belly, at least as hatchlings. Plus they are huge compared to thayeri, even as babies. And from what I have seen of our MBKs, they would most likely eat any thayeri you tried to couple them with... just not that picky about food, in fact they have made good effort on both fingers and toes that I have seen first hand and foot. I have to wonder if the hybrids you saw with the amel clutch mates really had some measure of black thayeri up the line, and then maybe some ruthveni or nelsoni to get the amel gene. But then again I did not see them and a blind guess is not worth much. And like you I would worry about a black thayeri that hatched out patternless, but that would just be suspect and not a full on "tell", I expect to see some hint of pattern when they hatch and then to have them darken as they mature.
I wish it was all easier... everything is clear as mud these days.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited
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Just sort of musing here... - lbenton, Thu Aug 27 08:01:46 2009