Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Took some pics of our lemons the other day and thought I would share. Enjoy!

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3.2 Corn (Butter-Sunflower '07/Anery Stripe-Ripple '06/Amber-Jack Straw '06/Snow-Casey Jones '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 9yrs, Porter 4yrs)

np

James those guys are incredible! It's looking like I might not be making it down there till late summer but maybe we can still find some stuff. When did you get those?
Nate

Nate,
A friend and I share the project...we have had the adults since '05, the babies hatched out last year. These guys are a SWEET morph!

Hopefully it is gonna be a good year in the field, all the A/C we laid out last year should be doing it's job well...you need to get your bum down here, the horridus spot may have a little something special up it's sleeve by the time you make it
James

>>> "These guys are a SWEET morph!"

A SWEET morph of what?

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

They are a Elaphe obsoleta (Black Ratsnake) morph that was developed by Will Bird over about the last decade and a half.

I assume then, that they were very likely developed from naturally occurring wild-type animals with possible intergradation, is this correct?,....I'm trying to understand the amount of yellow, and the four longitudinal stripes typical of quadrivittata. The way the blotch pattern "bleeds" down the side to form a sort of cross-band is strange as well.

Don't get me wrong, it could be plausible to selectively breed to get more of any underlying yellows, pinks, etc.. there might have been along with others after a while, this is true,......but with both the yellow, AND the longitudinal stripes, I'm sort of left wondering.......hmmm.

I'm certainly not trying to give anyone a hard time, or discredit anything at all, I'm just trying to understand what I'm looking at.

Because, as you know, if someone subscribes to the fact that ALL the obsoleta complex is basically one animal, then that could explain it some too. So was this project originally started from "jet-black" animals, or a "greenish" look, "Texas-ish" look, etc...know what I mean?

Can you explain this in any detail?, or is this classified information?..LOL!(just funnin')

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

While I can't explain in detail how the morph was developed (not my project, I just have a couple of adults and produced a few this year for sale) the start of this project was a young animal that was collected in Louisville Kentucky in 1990.
I can tell you that the hets for this trait look just like the standard E. obsoleta obsoleta I find around here (dark patterning, not much in the way of stripes) so I am nearly certain that there has likely been little to no outcrossing.

Ahh,..okay!, thanks a bunch for giving a little on the history of those. ......interesting indeed!

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"