I've also been leaning more to the homozygous lethal theory every year we go without a public proven homozygous spider. The problem is that it's really hard to prove something by its absence, especially when you throw in spotty reporting of breeding results, rumors of a proven homozygous, and now multiple paternity clutches.

I've also been told that a lot of people don't understand the homozygous lethal concept and that it's irresponsible even to mention the possibility publicly. However, if it is homozygous lethal I figure it would take at least several extra years for the big spider breeders to accept the data and let the buying public know. There seems to be a mass hysteria that being homozygous lethal is a very negative thing for a morph. All it really means is that you can't produce a viable breeding homozygous animal. It doesn't necessarily mean there will be anything wrong with the heterozygous ones and to the contrary evidence is that heterozygous spiders tend to grow fast and breed young (and as far as I know woma balls and jaguar carpet pythons are also healthy). Stunning heterozygous examples of a homozygous lethal morph would still be very popular for breeding to normals and combining with other morphs, you just wouldn’t bother to breed them to each other once you know that the homozygous isn’t possible.

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