Yes, I noticed all of the very things you are mentioning when I first saw his post, and I totally agree with what you are saying.



1) A true amelanistic animal would typically have absolutely ZERO melanin anywhere on the entire body (including the eyes).



2) A hypomelanistic animal would display a reduction in the overall animal's melanin content to varying degrees, and even less commonly, greatly reduced to the point of affecting the eyes giving them a very deep ruby/bloodred coloration.



3) A tyrosinaise-positive (t-plus) animal would typically have more of a lavender/purplish, or sort of milk chocolate/deep lavender hue and would typically display deep ruby-red eyes.



My newly-discovered locality-specific "moonshine" morph intergrade "greenish" ratsnakes originating from the northeastern corner of S. Carolina are surprisingly variable looking too. The lightest individuals seem to be virtually amelanistic looking, while others (generally the females from what I understand) tend to be the darker phase with corresponding dasrker eyes. When I first got mine, the female seemed to have jet BLACK pupils. But many months later I was looking at her one day and to my surprise were actually a deeper ruby-red coloration, and not black at all. They seemed to be lightening up from what they looked like as a hatchling.



I think from everything I have seen, studied and researched regarding the dynamics of how chromatophores operate, as well as what genetic terms tend to apply best for a given phenotype, the particular morphs that I have are probably best described as a form of T-positive albino rather than a hypo. They display a purplish/lavender hue that is indicative of the melanin "precursor" protein catalyst that is visible within the cells, but doesn't allow proper production of actual melanin, or at least VERY little of it. Producing "some" small amounts of melanin in T-plus forms is also fairly common too, just like a hypo can vary anywhere from a 1 to a 10 in Honduran milksnakes. For example, the "extreme" hypos I work with being the full-blown 10's.



If the pupils in yours are truly black (as they do appear to be), it seems that this really doesn't fit any of the three above genetic terms I described because of the irises AND pupils still being a normal coloration. However the body background seems to be missing ALL melanin and only the other remaining pinkish/red pigment remains (erythrin).



All I can come up with for lack of a better genetic term for yours is that it is likely a form of "paradox" amelanistic that for some bizarre reason still allows melanin to be produced within the pupils themselves, but nowhere else. Is there any light "smokey" darkish over-spray look on it anywhere at all?. If not, I would think it is an anomaly "parodox" form of either amel, or t-plus.



It will be very interesting to see what you come up with, but if it is a genetically ihheritable trait, it will still take growing up normal hets and breeding them back to this animal, and sibling to sibling to make any morphs. It will be VERY interesting to see if ALL the morph hatchlings display the same black pupils, or not.



Anyway, very cool snake. And I look real forward to seeing some morphs in the future...





~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"



serpentinespecialties.webs.com



* "This hooby has the worst types of people I ever met"

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* "Everyone thinks they are a know it all"....Rainer (Bluerosy)





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