Coloring Questions

[katach]

So, the more Maria grows, the more I wonder if she is a little.... different. She has no yellow or green coloring like Willow or Fish Bait. Her dorsal stripe is a very bright white color. Here is a couple pics of her.

T.ordinoides




One more thought on sort of a similar topic.

Blade is a red stripe. I know as a rule being a red stripe is not a morph, but Blade is soooooo red. I'm wondering if she may be a morph after all. I know there is a term for the red coloring, just can't think of it right now. Notice how it isn't just her stripe that is red, but it's everywhere, even her belly.

T.ordinoides

[EasternGirl]

Wow...she is red! What an amazing color! Maria looks a lot like Cee Cee...I don't want to wake her up right now to take a close-up...let me see if I have any good close-up pics....

[guidofatherof5]

Both are awesome but Blade is smokin'.

[EasternGirl]

Okay this is a terrible pic...but just to show you how Cee Cee has a stripe like Maria's down the middle:

100_0284.jpg I don't know...Cee Cee looks a bit more checkered...but I think they look a little similar to me: 100_0221.jpg

[BUSHSNAKE]

nice easterns Marnie

[BUSHSNAKE]

KAT whats your question?

[katach]

Well. I'm wondering if Maria is like Steve's B/W radix, and if Blade is a red morph?

[ConcinusMan]

Well. I'm wondering if Maria is like Steve's B/W radix, and if Blade is a red morph?

There are only 3 types of northwesterns that I would consider a "morph". Blade is one of them. He's erythristic. Then there's melanistic ones (all black or dark charcoal grey, with very faint or no stripes/markings at all) and then of course, there's albino.

Albino and melanistic are mutated, recessive genes. Erythristics are not. That morph is a result of polygenic inheritance and is pretty common compared to melanistic or albino.

I guess you could also call stripeless ones a morph, but really, it's just polymorphism and they actually have stripes. It's just that once in a while a northwestern will have it's base color and stripe color exactly the same, so you don't see the stripe.

There's also laterally striped (has side stripes) and single stripe(dorsal stripe only) , but again that's just polymorphism.
Lab Manual Exercise #5

To simplify, the only mutations known are albino and melanistic. Anything else is just polymorphism. Maria is perfectly normal.

You would probably like this Thamnophis ordinoides polymorphism poster: Posters - Diamondback Trading Cards

[BUSHSNAKE]

i think theres only one way to find out...........
i gotta get going w the ones i got from you and see how they develop

[katach]

Well.........