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I purchased these snakes as a hypo harlequin line last year and have had a few tell me they are something different. They are nice looking snakes the female has a small amount of speckling on her body and a little dark shading on her head. The male is more of a hypo looker without alot of significant mrks. Any help would be helpful, Tim

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3 ex wives
2 daughters
0.2 cats
way to many snakes(or so the ex wives say)

Well, they are Hypo, but in this case it isn't easy to tell if they are Harlequin or not.

Who did you purchase them from - who produced them?

There are lots of breeders working with the Harlequin line, and as it gets outcrossed and 'diluted' more and more, we see less and less of the characteristics Harlequins are know for.

So your boas may not look like my Salmon Harlequins, but that doesn't mean they aren't Harlequins.

You could even go to Brandon or Tim Magee and ask if they had sold Harlequins to the breeder who produced these.

Help us out with more info...
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

dominant or what not. I know it's poly genetic and not recessive so if a harly mates with a normal then what percentage of the offspring is it present in? I thought it was half but someone told me it is 100% of the offspring gets it even though they are not showing it. So what's the deal? and I'm truly sorry for the ?'s also
Bob

Square one...
The word you're looking for?

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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

nonetheless but will you help me even though no one is ever perfect, oh yeah there was that one guy
Bob

What is your understanding,or definition of the term "polygenic"? The term is thrown around alot these days by people who think they know much more about what it really means,than they really do.it has become,in a sense,a substitute for "selective breeding",and is often used to suggest that the subject in question has no specific genetic properties,but is simply the cream that rises to the top during any homogenization process.
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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

little about it but I think I know more but I get lost. I want to say it has more than one set of genes that makes up the Harlequin gene. So if not all two or three genes align perfectly than you get harlequin with the hidden gene but better color than a normal but without all the dorsal configurations which I love a lot. If they align you get this
harlequinboa.net/hb-cms/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=39&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=46
So set me straight please Tim (I think that's your name but sorry if it isn't) and wondering how far I am off.
Bob

"Harlequin" is the name of a bloodline,not a "morph" that has a specific look("monotypical expression",mentioned previously)...people seem to forget this,and often speak of "THE Harlequin GENE",and think it only refers to the aberrant/nicely colored examples... the confusion comes from trying to associate what we know about specific "morphs" that all look like we think they should,and applying it to something where even the "normals" also produce results...if I had gotten different results from breeding them,I would've concluded that "normals" were of no genetic importance,and paid less attention to the bloodline,and more on the expressive examples only...(it would've been much easier.) I believe,in this way they are similar to Jungles,at least in terms of lesser,and greater expressive individuals,extreme variation,and a benefit from focus on the bloodline itself rather than only one,or two certain visual criteria...we have not concluded whether a homozygous Harlequin is possible,what it should look like,or if we've already gotten one,and just haven't bred it yet? but the term "selective breeding" is what we did once we were sure we had something genetic...not what we did to create it in the first place.(the original pair were "normal looking" boas)....we don't really know what you get when all the "genes line up" because we were determined not to inbreed it to death,and chose to build a broad foundation of outcrosses prior to doing alot of inbreeding.what backcrossing has been done has produced some fairly remarkable results...so to answer your original question,at least the way I interpret it...Yes,100% of the animals we originally let go of were "Harlequin bloodline animals" they were all F1 offspring from a paring involving one parent that was pure non-hypo Harlequin...at what point of dilution do you quit calling it Harlequin???,I honestly don't know because,quite simply it is the opposite direction of where I'm going with it...I hope this helps.
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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

Bob...sorry if bustin'out the phonics on ya seemed "rough". *lol* I just wasn't sure if what you thought you knew was what I thought you meant,or if what I thought you meant was what someone else thought they knew,but just wasn't really sure...well,you know what I mean
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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

What do you call the dorsal saddles that tend to look like the backs of arrows? Like this one
harlequinboa.net/hb-cms/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=39&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=46
harlequinboa.net/hb-cms/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=39&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=317
thanks again
Bob

shadow for the genetics explanation, my bad

Help I could give you,would echo Joe's reply.Any time you're dealing with a particular bloodline,in terms of validity,or verification,getting accurate information from the person who actually produced the animals is the best advice I could offer...Harlequins are not Jungles,however,they share the quality of extreme variation,and are not monotypical(like,say Motleys,or,Arabesques.)in their expressive appearence.I regularly produce animals in a single litter that look NOTHING like their siblings,and frequently get complete surprises,that even I wouldn't have expected.

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HarlequinBoa.com Captive born excellence through applied genetic theory...and,astute observations based on a keen sense of the sometimes painfully obvious

Thanx Guys for all the info on the bloodline. and the links and pics. Sorry I did not get back with u right away. I got these snakes from Tim Frazier as a trio originally last year. Thanks Brendan for the direct contact. I plan on breeding them together later down the road. I just like looking at them right now, Tim
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3 ex wives
2 daughters
0.2 cats
way to many snakes(or so the ex wives say)