Blackhead Spider and Blackhead Bee

[majorleaguereptiles]

Recently, I figured out some remarkable genetics regarding the blackhead x spider combo. This season, Reid Begnoche from TallGrassReptiles bred his Blackhead male to a 2 bumblebees and a spider. The offspring were very strange, so I decided to do some homework which ended with successfully identifying the blackhead spider and blackhead bee thanks to Reid's continued help in sharing his animals with me.

In 2005, Ralph Davis bred a Blackhead to a Spider in hopes to make the "black widow". To his surprised he thought he struck out on the combo. However, he did not... He made the first ever blackhead spider pictured here.


Here is the blackhead spider with a regular spider.


This year Reid made more blackhead spiders pictured here.




The obvious markers are the head spot, some have some white speckling up the sides, almost like a calico. The pattern is still very web-like, however it isn't what you would expect obviously. The white really comes through like a calico with the blackhead bee from TallGrassReptiles pictured here.



I spoke with Ralph about the my findings and he confirmed. He has actually made a remarkable snake with the blackhead spider female from 2005 this year. I'm sure if you do your homework, you can figure this out.

I really don't understand how the blackhead does this to the spider. All these animals present no wobble. What helped me piece this information together was the fact there are mutations out there that mask the spider mutation completely. If you look at the super phantom spider, that is a perfect example how you don't visually see the spider mutation in the appearance.

This is a very neat mutation, that is obviously very powerful. I want to mention Ralph bred his original BH to some aberrant females over the years and there are other mutations floating in his Blackhead stock. So keep your eyes peeled, and again if you do your homework, you can figure this out. These genes are why some blackheads do look different than others. I do believe these other genes are very powerful, but even Ralph doesn't know exactly what is going on with them. The same way he wasn't even sure about the blackhead spider until this season.

I ended up getting a pair of blackhead spiders from Reid at TallGrassReptiles at full price, so you can be certain that I feel strongly about the combo, even though it really looks nothing like you would expect the blackhead spider to look like.

I want to thank Reid Begnoche for sharing his information with me this season to help piece this crazy puzzle together, and congratulations on making the first blackhead bee and these cool blackhead spiders. This also allowed me to successfully identify a couple cool animals John Woolard made this year as well, much to his surprise. So maybe he can chime in.

Hope everyone is having a great season!

[Annarose15]

I love how dense the blackhead gene makes the spider webbing. Thank you for sharing!

[RoseyReps]

Someone really needs to loan me 5k.

Those are some awesome conclusions! Love the black head! Soooo much potential!

[slithering house]

their gorgeous i have a blackhead 100 percent het pied female im going to breed with a pied to see what comes out hopefully something good

[MarkieJ]

Thanks for sharing your secrets of the Blackhead. Not many breeders open up to the mysteries of certain morphs.

[AGoldReptiles]

Great work Brant! Any chance you could do a similar post on what you discovered about the Trick?

Thanks for sharing!

[Orenshi]

The pattern on the Blackhead Spider looks like paint is dripping off or something. hehehe