My experience with blaze is that this form of hypomelanism , as do others, affects not only the intensity of melanin but pattern elements as well. In other words, not only is black pigment muted to varying degrees but the area occupied by melanin based pigment is also diminished.

After re-reading the post I wanted to revisit this portion. My observations of blaze leads me to believe that the primary mechanism is a reduction in the amount a melanin vice the reduction in its intensity. This is not without analogue. There are two closely related milk snakes that each exhibit a form of hypomelanism, syspila and temproalis. In the syspila hypo there is a general reduction in the amount of melanin. As a result the reds and white are cleaner and the black bands are more slight but remain well defined. In temporalis the hypo trait primarily manfests as a reduction in the intensity of the black pigment. Hypo temporalis can look anywhere from just a very clean looking normal (kind of like the syspila hypo) to something that almost looks albino. In fact many people call them T plus albinos (which is another misnomer).

Anyway my take is that the blaze trait is similar to the syspila type of hypo. As neonates these guys are blazing. The red, ever present in neonate goini, is more prominent because its less masked by melanin not because there is more of it. As the animal ages and both red and black pigments fade you're left with an animal that in my opinion lacks the contrast and luster of the original.

I've posted a couple of pics of the hypo temporalis to show the range of expression you can seen in the melanin. The lone animal is quite dark while those in the clutch shot almost look albino. part of that difference is exposure but not much. As an aside the darker ones look better as adults.









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