Posted by:
DMong
at Thu Oct 29 21:55:14 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by DMong ]
There will always be a certain amount of confusion in some of the terms that are used in herpetoculture, because not everyone applies the same standards to the genetics that comprise certain mutations. Some call things a certain name because it "resembles" another snake on the market that has already had a particular name coined to it.
Typically in colubrid genetics, a "ghost" is comprised of two different recessive genes, one being hypomelanism(reduced dark pigment..melanin), and the other being anerythrism(complete lack of red pigmentation)which the erythrophores are responsible for producing. These two traits combined give an animal a muted, subdued coloration, thus the term "ghost".
A "hypo"..(hypomelanistic) animal expressing reduced dark pigment, looks a bit cleaner, and somewhat more vibrant due to the other underlying colors of the animal not having as much melanin to "muddy" up the color scheme. and normally dark lines or rings become much lighter as well. In extreme cases of hypomelanism, the eyes can even be a ruby-red coloration because the dark pigment has been so drastically reduced.
Now if you are talking about the animal on the site that where acquired from Quade of Gulf Coast reptiles, and is also known as a white-sided, or ghost Everglades, that is totally different than most other typical ghost animals, because it is a weird pattern anomaly, as WELL as a color mutation of varying degrees. This is probably more of a hypoxanthism, which is a reduction of the yellow/orange pigment, rather than anerythrism(lack of red), but because it is faded and subdued nontheless, it was coined "ghost" as well.
For example, a "ghost" corn, or "ghost" Honduran milk both are a combination of anerythrism, and hypomelanism that gives the animal a faded ghostly appearance.
I suspect yours is probably one of these hypoxanthic animals too. If you could post a pic, that would be great.
hope this helps out some.
~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing" 
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RE: I'm ignorant - ? hypo vs ghost - DMong, Thu Oct 29 21:55:14 2009