i think everybody here's correct...

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Posted by rtdunham on February 13, 2003 at 20:16:53:

In Reply to: Tangerine x tricolor honduran = ??? posted by nategodin on February 13, 2003 at 13:13:48:

yes, imho it's polygenic, the result of the interplay of multiple genes. i've bred plenty of tangerines X tricolors--for example, in crossing hypos (the earliest were tangerines) X albinos (the earliest were tricolors). You usually get a few nice tangerines and a few nice tricolors and the rest are at various points in between. And just as you generally get half males and half females from a clutch of babies, the actual results in a given clutch or small number of clutches can deviate wildly, so yeah, someone might get almost all tangerines, or almost all tricolors, but that might not represent what you'd find in a large sample. Plus the "tangerine" you use in that pairing might have come out of a tangerine x tricolor cross, for example, and have a number of the genes that produce a tricolor appearance. And vice versa. To get the best tangerines, you selectively breed the best tangerines together, and ditto for excellent tricolors. FWIW, the best tricolors I've seen have been hets for anerythristic. Maybe just a coincidence, or maybe the first anerythristic came from excellent tricolor stock (bright yellow rings with less fading than usual over time). I'm sure there are now some anerys oiut of good tangerine stock, too, especially since people have crossed anerys to hypos (remember that tangerine heritage!) in ghost projects.

Oh, and since nobody's mentioned it, Louis Porras says the tricolors are found at altitude in honduras, and the tangerines in the lowlands. if you think about it, that makes sense in terms of avolutionary adaptation: the tricolors typically "darken" up as they age, with increased melanin often even obscuring the white bands, so you end up with a dark red and black "bicolor". Imagine that snake, thousands of feet above sea level, basking in order to thermoregulate: which animal's gonna achieve better thermoregulation in that instance, a light orange tangerine, or a dark-red and black bicolor (tricolor).

terry
albino tricolors

Follow Ups:

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