Re: Are you sure about the bug-eyed thing?.....

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Posted by patricia sherman on August 10, 2002 at 15:12:56:

In Reply to: Re: Are you sure about the bug-eyed thing?..... posted by Dwight Good on August 10, 2002 at 10:20:58:

It is true that the word isn't even included in the dictionary, I just checked World Book Dictionary for it! There are many words beginning with "leuc...", but not this one. Bechtel's definition is the most complete that I've seen.

Saying that leucism is a more complete form of albinism is totally incorrect. "Albino" is a term that is improperly used to define whiteness that stems from the non-synthesis of melanin (black) pigmentation. The correct term for this condition is "amelanism". My personal POV is that we should stop applying the term "albino" to our reptile pets, since it is so frequently used incorrectly, and since it is so much easier and more correct to use the terms amelanistic, anerythristic, leucistic, etc., when those conditions are exhibited or are possessed as recessives.

The amelanistic animal, lacking the ability to produce any black pigment, has pink or red eyes. That the leucistic animal isn't amelanistic, is clearly evident from the fact that the eyes of the leucistic are pigmented, and the non-sythesizing defect is limited to the skin. Furthermore, even the whitest of leucistics frequently have at least two or three black scales somewhere on their bodies. Were they amelanistic, this wouldn't occur.

Pink-eyed leucistics are double-hets. They're both leucistic and amelanistic.

Tricia

::Another ? I do have, would be along the lines of what to tell the public about Leucesism over Albinism????????

::So far, from what was explained to me, Leucesim is a more complete form of Albinism....... Sound good???

:Here is the definition that I have of leucism....

:"Leucism is a hereditary chromatophore defect involving all chromatophores, and leucistic snakes have no functional melanophores or xanthophores, and very few iridophores. The term leucistic is derived from leukos, the Greek word for white. The word originated when knowledge of chromatophores was more rudimentary, and cannot even be found in the dictionary. It has, however, been used for years by herpetologists to identify these white mutants, and it serves in communication to distinguish them from other hypopigmented variants."

:H.B. Bechtel, 1995. Reptile and Amphibian Variants. Krieger Publishing, Malabar, Florida

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