Polymorphism would explain a lot. And your line of thinking is pretty novel, at least to me.



Rusty wrote:

I’ve also noticed that males (within the same clutch) are often the lightest (hypos or ghosts) in the group.



I have a few hypo hondurans, but I haven't really done anything w/ them. But I do have a number of hypo syspila, and have seen varying degrees of what I would call a hypo animal.

I also have noticed in some of my hypo syspila clutches that many times the males are brighter then the females.



Here is a pretty good example. Hypo male from the same clutch as the female below.









I'd say that the colors/saturation in these photos is very close to how the animals look in hand, and I think you can see how much different the two clutch mates look from each other as far as the hypomelinisim is concerned.



Now I don't know if I can help out any further w/ your hypothesis, but I can tell you I'll be watching this thread to see what others have to say. And think you have asked some interesting questions.



You deserve a beer for your mental gymnastics. ☺



-Dell

[ Show Entire Thread ]