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I just picked up this beautiful black thayeri two weeks ago and man is he a knock out. The poor man's Indigo for sure. The other one is the peachy leonis one I got from Mitch Allen at Daytona.

Enjoy,
Russ

P.S. Another clutch is hatching as I type...yippee!!

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That little one is an absolute knockout! Love the way those nice open saddles pinstripe laterally... just gorgeous. I have an '03 female from Vermilya's white project that is almost identical... same great open saddles that pinstripe the same way, same open nuchal that breaks on the right side and she has a very clean, pale mint green ground color that is nearly white. I'd show you a pic of her, but I'm afraid she'd break your heart!

Yeah, I know... I can be a real pain in the butt.....

Seriously though, that little thayeri is just awesome, thanks for sharing... male or female?

Mike

You can almost see the irridescence. Nice addition! Anxious to see the new babies as well.

I don't think many people realize how striking a really nice melanistic thayeri is until they see one right in front of them. Jet black beauties with super high gloss sheen... spectacular!

Great to see you take an interest in these Russ and congrats in a big way on that superb male! I hope to see you get serious with a melanistic project but if you ever decide to get rid of him, look right here... my female desperately needs a sharp looking stud like him.

Mike

That melanistic you have Mike is a beauty. Why is it that you don't see more of the melanistic thayeri at shows or for sale online? I was at a show yesterday, and saw some Thayeri, but I didn't see any MSP Thayeri or melanistic ones as usual. I have seen one, and I agree, they are very glossy, and a nice change if you don't want something as large as a nigrita or gaigeae.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your compliment on the female. She is a jet black beauty I agree... completely saturated jet black.

I can only speculate as to why we don't see more of them these days, but I will gladly share my thoughts. From what I am learning, knowing that melanism in these guys is recessive, and only about 50% of the offspring over the lifetime of a melanistic X melanistic adult pairing will exibit melanism, understandably they are naturally few and far between. And you aren't guaranteed of any melanistic offspring from every clutch... that percentage is referring to the total lifetime production of the pair. They could realistically go years without producing any. Also, being that the masses are generally attracted more to the normal variable and incredibly beautiful colored examples, it stands to reason that the interest hasn't been there enough for most serious breeders to remain involved in producing them. Add to that the fact that some of the babies that don't display the melanism can be somewhat drab in appearance compared to those prize winning, brilliantly colored specimens... and I think we have our answer to your question. I appreciate them very much, but the masses don't seem to and I certainly don't blame them considering the choices in thayeri.

An example of what I described is in the pics below. These are the adults and the clutch they produced this year. A pairing such as this, I understand reduces the lifetime probability down to around 25%, until you begin to incorporate these het offspring into the equation. Breeding the males back to the dam, or siblings together, brings the odds back up to around 50% if I understand it correctly, but I am far from well educated in the field of genetics.

Mike

Well that explains it a little better now on why the melanistic is not found quite as often. Thanks Mike for explaining that for me.

Steve

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