Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am new to the snake world and was wandering what some of the words and abbreviations were.......pyro,het,2.2,CB,motley,ontogenetic,hybrid,...etc.

Thanks

I have compiled a Glossary of commonly used terms, abbreviations, etc. and submitted it to the moderators here for review, but that process is apparently not complete yet. They have had it for review for about 2 weeks now, I E-mailed them 2 days ago to check progress, but haven't heard back yet. My assumption is that as soon as review is finished it will be available for forum use.

In the meantime, let's see if I can help with some of the ones you listed.

2.2 denotes the sex of animals. It is denoted as follows:
Males.females.unsexed. For instance, if you see 2.2 that means 2 males and 2 females. If there are no unsexed animals, that position is simply not used. If you see 0.0.6, that means no males, no females, 6 unsexed. If you see 1.0, that means 1 male, 0.1 measn 1 female, 1.1.1 means 1 male, 1 female, 1 unsexed.

Het is an abbreviation for heterozygous. In snake genetics, for a trait such as red pigment or black pigment or yellow pigment, each parent contributes one gene. If you have an albino female and a normal male, a mating between the two would result in 1 gene for albinism (lack of black pigment) and 1 gene for normal coloration. The two types of the same gene are called alleles. If you have one of each allele (as in the above example) the two genes are different, thus the term heterozygous (different zygotes). If two normal parents mate, the two genes are the same, and that offspring would be said to be homozygous (same zygotes). In the case of the heterozygous offspring, the coloration would be normal because one of the genes is capable of producing black pigment, but that offspring wouldl be carrying a recessive gene for albinism.

Pyro is an abbreviation of the specific name for an Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis pyromelana pyromelana).

CB means Captive Born. CBB means Captive bred and born. The difference there is that if you catch a wild female snake and it happens to lay eggs, those babies are captive born, but not bred in captivity. W/C or WC means wild caught. FI is fresh import. LTC is long term captive, meaning a wild caught snake that has been in captivity for an extended period of time.

Ontogenetic refers to the life history of an individual organism. Phylogetic refers to the history of a race or species of organisms.

A Hybrid is the result of a mating between two species or genera of animals that would not normally occur in the wild. Usually true hybrid offspring are infertile. The mating of two closely related subspecies is referred to as an intergrade, This does occur in the wild.