|
Melanistic
Morelia viridis
The melanistic is one i have been working on for several
years now , it started back in "97 when i aquired a nearly
black female highland animal, i bred here the same year to a
highland male she got gravid and in '98 the first babys were
born. I held all of them back to see if the females
condition might be genetic.
When the babys grew up and completed ontogenetic change only
two of them had some minor black speckling, so the only
conclusion was that if it was a genetic condition it would
be a recessive one. I lost the founder female when she got
eggbound when she got gravid again a second time so the only
thing possible was to line breed the siblings hoping the
were "hets" and hope for the best..... I produced a first
clutch from them in 2002 by the end of 2003 after these
babys had there ont. change results were indicating that it
definately was a genetic trait and it was simple recessive
as 25% of the babys were melanistics!
Pictured on top to the left is the founder female on her
clutch the four pictures next to her are the hets she
produced from that clutch as adults, in the second row are
some of the melanistics produced from these hets with an
absolutely one of a kind animal in the middle currently
owned by Ricoh Walder from Signal Herp (USA). As a bonus
this line seems to devellop a blue color when they mature,
males as well as females, which makes them even more
spectacular. Bottom row is one of our melanistics produced
in 2004 at two years of age after the ont. change.
 |
