Mojave vs lesser

I have to say I've been breeding Lesser's for 4 years now if you are confusing a Lesser/ butter(same thing) with a mojave move on to the next prospective ad bottom line.

In my years in this hobby I have only seen one mojave that very much looked like a dark lesser. Again if your not sure move on to the next one.;) I like mojos I have a couple of them lessers blow them away. IMO:D

So....everyone seems to exclaim that "they" can always tell the difference but only one person chose to take a stab at guessing what morph each of the 4 bps I posted was. Since no one else wants to guess....I will expose the TRUTH about those photos.

Photo 1 - For sale as LESSER advertised by Renick Reptiles on Kingsnake

Photo 2 - For sale as 2 MOJAVE females advertised by CBN on Kingsnake

Photo 3 - My owned female MOJAVE not in shed

Photo 4 - For sale as LESSER advertised by SERPENTINE EXOTICS on Kingsnake

Here is what I think is happening. The genes are becoming muddy because of the similar super form and the guesswork associated with the clutches sired or dammed by a BEL of mixed morphs lesserxmojave. They are a variation (does not mean the same just very close) of the same morph and I think if the two are not being selectively bred we will soon have a single morph.

I think that there are two determinations associated with these two morphs color and pattern.

The mojave should have single eyed alien heads running down both sides of the body. The color should be a chocolate brown with plenty of blushing with a gun metal grey or blueish accents. The belly should be clean.

The lesser should have a reduced pattern with few or no alien heads and or spots. The color should be light brown/tan with light yellow accents. The belly should be clean.

My mojave seems like a good specimen color wise but does not have a perfect mojave pattern.

Please comment.

Interesting -- I came in too late to toss in my guess, but I did have a tough time ID'ing a few of those. I got that #1 was an ugly lesser, but I thought that #4 was a pretty mojo. Huh.

Because I do think that lesser and mojave are distinct alleles, not just different bloodlines of the same morph like lessers and butters, I don't think they'll ever become one morph. Whatever makes them different on a molecular level will always remain different. Lessers will never be able to make potions or passions or what have you; mojaves will never be able to make quite as "clean" a leucistic in homozygous form, etc.. At least, that's my suspicion. They just seem too different to be different bloodlines of the exact same allele.

I do agree, however, that without selecting for the traits that make them visually unique, the line gets blurred -- not on a genetic level, but from an identification standpoint.

I will say, this year I bred lesser x mojave and got BELs and two lessers. There is not one single shred of doubt in my mind that my lessers are lessers, and not mojaves, and of all my unrelated lessers and mojaves (it occurred to me awhile back that I have rather a lot of BEL-complex animals relative to my collection size, heh), not a one is ambiguous IMO. Still, I guess if the clutch had been sired by the lesser in picture 1 and out of the mojave in picture 4, it might've been a little bit tougher ... :rolleyes:

Remember these snakes are very variable plus our snakes colors are constantly changing during their shed cycles. That bottom lesser can easily be a couple weeks from shedding this in turn would change its color just like it does to its belly. I'd bet that's why most didn't bother guessing.

All of my snakes are constantly changing, there is only a 10 to 15 day time period after a shed to get a good representation through photos.

Mojos are too lessers what cinnys are too black pastels, breed them together and they do produce a Bel and black snake but they do not change each other at all. To me what changes these animals shade of light or dark is the other copy or allele the wildtype side I guess you can say. Not the platinum complex allele because I believe that always stays the same its the other side that decides color variability and busyness or reduced patterning.