I was there when alterna first were collected. Of course, not the very first, but close. I was also one of the pioneers in mexicana breeding.

In the early days, blairs phase had red that split the black and had fewer bands, Under 16 normally. Alterna, could not have red that split the bands and must have a higher band count. Over 16. Of course, there is a grey area, hahahahahahahaha pun intented.

The purist at the time considered it an alterna, if it had no red what so ever. Which was very very rare.

So the individual in question is a narrow banded blairs with a few alternets. Even wide banded blairs can have a few alternets.

The alterna you showed may not be considered an alterna because its low band count and no alternets. Consider, what alterna means. alternating bands. Big ones, then small broken bands.

So an extreme alterna could be represented by a speckled blackgap. No red splits, double or triple alternets, high band count. And an extreme blairs one like you posted, wide red, no alternets, low band count.

And yes, both in captivity and nature, there IS everything inbetween and more. Cheers

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