Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We know gender influences size on some colubrids, right? At least, I think there's a consensus on that. Certainly on body size/girth in some species, if not on length, but perhaps the latter too?

Well, if that's true, what about gender diffs in appearance?

I've noticed male hypo hondurans seem cleaner than females, generally speaking. (i'll post this on that forum too, it's all Lampropeltis). I've seen numerous female amelanistic hondos and amelanistic nelsoni that were "high yellow," lots of ontogenetic gain in yellow in areas that would be black or white or both. Are males showing that change as frequently as females?

Or any other gender diffs in appearance? What about brooksi--are the lighter, most yellow wild-type brooksi usually males? females? no diff? I think Paul pointed out some diffs in brindle black rats in an earlier thread--has anyone observed wild-type black rats and noticed any diff between males showing more rich colors and remaining pattern, vs females being darker, more black? Any other species?

I ask because of the questions in the thread below re: PB brooksi. Maybe the diffs in the male and female "het" PBs are actually showing what results after a genetic change is applied uniformly to males and females which differ in certain ways, though we seldom notice them. (example: suppose there's yellow & red (erythrins) and black/brown (melanin) in a species' normal coloration. Suppose males and females have the same amount of melanin but females have more erythrins...that might not be conspicuous or even evident on a normal "wild type" but suppose there's a hypomelanistic morph--with the melanin reduced, the females' greater concentration of yellow or red pigment becomes noticeable, and males and females would differ. Maybe--sometimes--the diffs we see are diffs that exist in the wild-type animals too but aren't observable til part of the coloration is altered, revealing that gender diff.

I'm not saying this IS the case, and I'm not trying to apply this specifically to the PBs, i'm poking around at possibilities, seeing if something strikes a spark with someone and may give us some more insight.

terry

Hey Terry

I think on average males are brighter and have less black than females as far as Floridana is concerened. I know there are exceptions but in general males are prettier. With Eastern Kings I havent noticed a difference at all so maybe its more related to animals that go thru more ontogenetic change. Also in Getula Ive found that males are generally bigger again I know some will argue but Ive raised many a sib of both sexes and Ive never had a female bigger than her brother but at times some have been close in size but the male always pulls away at about a year.

Keith
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IMO....

Generally speaking....

To the best of my recollection....

Darker (red) pyros are males. Same goes with knobs.

Darker mex-mex are males.

Darker greeri are males.

In cal kings the males are definitely bigger than females.

I do believe that if you have a "screamer" (whatever trait) male that it can and will be passed on to both male and female, but mostly in males, and is not predictable (as recessive genes are).

Obviously, these are just observations and generalized opinions and have no merit what-so-ever LOL

What was the original question again? LOL

The steaks are almost done, gotta go....

Kerby...