Posted by:
Rextiles
at Fri May 7 19:33:46 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Rextiles ]
Without a point of reference, it's hard to define what exactly it is you are seeing.
There are some young (hatchling, yearling) Axanthics that do tend to have some degrees of brown coloration, but it has been my experience with the pair that I have raised over the years that this was merely a gradual color change upon which their brown coloration faded completely.
Perhaps there are some adult individuals that do in fact maintain a high level of brown that are true Axanthics but I have not personally seen any such animal.
From what I've been told and from my own observations, you should be able to define an Axanthic from it's ventral scales if they have a checkered pattern. A normal phenotypic Western will typically have a black and yellow checkered ventral pattern, although some specimens have an all black ventral. Supposedy, a true Axanthic, if it has a checkered ventral, will only have black and white ventral patterning.
This of course brings me to the whole point of what term should even be applied.
There are quite a few people that refer to these animals as Anerythristic instead of using the term Axanthic. Interestingly, the two originators of both Axanthic lines, Brian Barczyk and Vin Russo of which everybody's animals have come from, have only ever called these animals Axanthic. So, when and why did some people choose to change the terminology? While the two traits have some similiar phenotypes, they are quite different from each other and should not be used interchangeably to describe a genotype. From everything that I could find and read about, the term Axanthic seems to be the correct term that was originally defined although there could be some significant reasons to use the other term.
So, how about it? What is everybody else's take on this? What term do you choose to use and why?
I think it's very important that we all can come to some sort of conclusion so that there is less confusion in the marketplace as well as in discussions/forums. Considering that this species is really starting to gain some significant momentum in the reptile world, I find it in our best interest, as breeders, if we can try and clarify this.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles
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Defining Axanthics - Rextiles, Fri May 7 19:33:46 2010
