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Two years ago I bred a male Mendota (melanistic) to a nice Chocolate banded female and produced all chocolate bandeds that were het for melanism. This year I bred 2 of the het siblings to each other and produced some melanistics. The normals are chocolate bandeds and the melanistics have the same aberrant pattern that the Mendotas (melanistics) did. I was sort of hoping to produce some perfect banded melanistics.

Rick Staub, if you read this I would like your input. Thanks

Kerby...

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$@

That is about what I would expect. What percentage of the clutch came out melanistic? Was it about one fourth as you would expect from breeding two recessive hets? In order to influence the Mendota phase, I think you will need to find a trait that is expressive and not a lack of function mutant, unless the mutation acted through the same pathway. It would be interesting to see and albino Mendota. Might get an albino with the Mendota pattern or perhaps the melanism might show through somehow, maybe even in the first generation hets.

The interesting thing about the Mendota and Davis melanistic populations is that I have never seen the pattern abberencies separate from the melanistic color. I have a hard time believing that the two are controlled by one gene so they must be on the same chromosome and fairly close or a recombination event would have separated them by now in at least one baby. The closer the two genes are in distance on the same chromosome, the lower the probability of them being separated, and therefore a much larger number of babies must be produced before the event will be observed. Assuming they are 2 genes of course.

>>Two years ago I bred a male Mendota (melanistic) to a nice Chocolate banded female and produced all chocolate bandeds that were het for melanism. This year I bred 2 of the het siblings to each other and produced some melanistics. The normals are chocolate bandeds and the melanistics have the same aberrant pattern that the Mendotas (melanistics) did. I was sort of hoping to produce some perfect banded melanistics.
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>>Rick Staub, if you read this I would like your input. Thanks
>>
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>>
>>Kerby...
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Rick Staub
R&R Reptiles

Rick I have seen abberrant Mendotas that were not melanistic however the abberrant pattern was very different from the abberrant pattern of the melanistics. The non-melanistic abberrants were dark brown and clean yellow/cream. The yellow parts were narrow bands, stripes and dashes and were not thick and blocky like on the melanistics.
I also have a Mendota kingsnake said to be from either a wc gravid female or two wc's that bred in the pillowcase. It is a light chocolate color with one abberrant band at the nuchal and a broken pale yellow stripe down the back and every scale up to one scale row either side of the dorsal stripe has a pale yellow dot. The yellow and chocolate colors both get progressivly paler on the side as they get closer to the belly and the belly is solid cream color. I have never seen another Cal King quite like it.

and got 4 eggs, 2 banded and 2 "mendotas"

This year I have 9 babies that are a product of Ghost x Mendota

Kerby...

Tough with only 4 eggs to make any sense of it. One less Mendota hatchling and it is a perfect 25%.

>>and got 4 eggs, 2 banded and 2 "mendotas"
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>>This year I have 9 babies that are a product of Ghost x Mendota
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>>Kerby...
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Rick Staub
R&R Reptiles