What are morphs and how do you identify the different morphs for a certain species?
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one male eastern box turtle
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What are morphs?
mdterp
Apr 03, 2008 03:48 PM
Replies (1)
Paul Hollander
May 21, 2008 02:04 PM
Dictionary definition -- an individual of one particular form, as a worker ant, in a species that occurs in two or more forms.
The ways "morph" is used by herpers, it is a herp with an abnormal color or pattern or both. The abnormality has to reproducable, too.
Many are caused by one mutant gene. For example, albino in ball pythons and boa constrictors, piebald in ball pythons, salmon (aka hypo) in boa constrictors. Or a morph could be caused by the effects of two or more mutant genes. For example, sunglow in boa constrictors is a combination of salmon and albino.
Closer to the classic dictionary definition would be the alterna and blairi phases of the graybanded king snake and the Okeetee and Miami morphs of the corn snake.
To identify a morph, you have to start off knowing what the wild type, the most common type in the wild, looks like. A lot of web sites have pictures of both the wild type and morphs of various species.
Hope this helps a bit.
Paul Hollander
