Well, actually, most of the so-called "Honduran" morphs have a genetic blending of some of the other Latin American ssp. too, as well as the normals. Some are certainly much more genuine than others are that are out there too. There is simply no doubt about this, and I explain this in great detail on my sites home page. No way in HELL all the milks from all of Central America could POSSIBLY be all pure genuine "hondurensis", it is simply impossible to even entertain the thought.

In our hobby today(and certainly back in the day too), most people consider any milk with rings and a discernible snout band to be a "Honduran", no matter how many rings it has, no matter how tipped-up it is, no matter what the temporal band is shaped in relation to the parietal scales, etc...

Same thing with lots of other ssp. too......nelsoni/sinaloae quickly come to mind here. There are HUGE differences between nice examples of these two, but since virtually ALL people continually see mediocre examples of either AT BEST, and for the most part NEVER see outstanding examples of either one, it gradually becomes "accepted" that they are basically the same, and become accustomed to this, and accept whatever things are labeled as basically. No knowledge to me means you can't tell the difference, or even better, what the differences are that makes subspecies different in the first place.

Certain things in this hobby cannot be changed or reversed, and must either be accepted, or not,....but when people do some of this nonsense on absolute PURPOSE, it simply opens the door wider, and wider for even MORE confusion(like there isn't enough already..LOL). Again, this boils down to people who only care about the way something LOOKS, and other's who only care about what something actually IS. This is something that will always be, no matter what.

I was talking to a hybridizer a few weeks ago, and the dude was showing me hybrids on his table that to most people, would simply look like cleaner, more vivid versions of the genuine article, to me, this is one of the most frustrating aspects of it. And I think these types of crossed snakes constitute the most danger to the common collections of the hobby. See, most people simply do not know enough to know the differences in these things for themselves, which continually perpetuates the problem further yet every single breeding year.

The more I keep seeing posts like......"hey guys!,...what is this I have?, any ideas?, I was told..blah blah blah, by so and so that blah blah blah".....it just says it ALL my friends.

Anyway, all I can do personally is do what I do, and hope for the best, because I don't like much of what I see in the hobby one little bit, so I will simply do my part in preserving what many do their dmndest to destroy for other future hobbyists.

End of rant...LOL!


~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

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