It doesn't make sense to me that this patternless boa would be the Super Harlequin because the male F3 Harlequin was bred to a "normal", unrelated female. If these patternless babies were the result of an F3 Harlequin x F3 Harlequin, I would say, okay, yes, this is very possibly (if not definitely) a Super Harlequin.

As unlikely as it is that the F3 Harlequin and the unrelated “normal” female are both carrying some unknown gene and just happened to be paired up together to produce these patternless babies…it is far more unlikely that what we are seeing here is the Super Harlequin because of the breeding that was done. The reason I say this is because, if this were true, what sort of genetics are we talking about? It wouldn’t seem to fall under any of the categories – simple recessive, co-dominant, or dominant.

For example, with the Jungle Boa, if you breed a Jungle to a normal, 50% of the litter will be Jungle and 50% will be normals. When you breed a Jungle to a Jungle, statistically, 25% of the litter should be Super Jungles, 50% Jungles, and 25% normals. These are co-dominant genetics at work. Another example with Ball Python genetics would be the Pastel Ball Python. If you breed a Pastel to a normal, you get 50% Pastels and 50% normals. If you breed a Pastel to a Pastel, you get 25% Super Pastels, 50% Pastels, and 25% normals; clearly, a co-dominant morph.

Take the same example and apply it to the Harlequin Boas and the Patternless Boas. If we say that the Patternless Boas are a super form of the Harlequins, then in order to get the super form, wouldn’t we have to breed a Harlequin to a Harlequin in order to obtain the super? How would a Harlequin x unrelated “normal” yield a super form? In essence, a Harlequin x normal producing a super form would be the equivalent to a Pastel Ball Python bred to a normal and producing a Super Pastel – we just jumped a step.

Another thing I was just thinking of…would it matter if this was an F3 Harlequin or not? Does the F3 matter in this particular case? If the Patternless are in fact the Super Harlequins, then why would it matter if the Harlequin that produces them is an F3 or an F2 or an F6, etc? It shouldn’t matter. An F3 Jungle and an F1 Jungle and an F5 Jungle will all give you the same results…shouldn’t they?

It seems to me that this Patternless Boa is either one of two things…

1.) The F3 Harlequin and the unrelated “normal” female are actually, miraculously both het for an unknown, mystery gene.

OR

2.) The Patternless Boa is a random mutation from the breeding. As unlikely as that may be, it has happened in the past. Look at Arabesque Boas. The first one was a spontaneous random mutation from a breeding between two normal boas that never produced another Arabesque.

I personally think that #1 is more likely than #2 and I say this because of the number of Patternless Boas that were produced in the litter. We’re not talking about just one Patternless in the litter…we are talking about several.

Anyways, the above are just my (way too long) ramblings. I don’t know what’s going on here and I can’t wait to see Tim and Brendan figure it out! All I do know for SURE is that I WANT some of those boas!!!

Thanks,
Celia
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Celia Chien

www.BoaConstrictorMorphs.com

Celia Chien Photography


www.ExoticsByNature.com
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