Quote Originally Posted by Serpent_Nirvana View Post
As was already stated, without a pile of dead babies to point to it's tough to conclusively prove the homozygous lethal condition. I guess you could calculate out statistically how many spiders out of spider x spider breedings you'd have to prove heterozygous in order to suggest strongly that there were no homozygous spiders ... Or, you could breed spider x spider, US for follicles early on, wait until after fertilization and US again to see how many follicles resorbed. A consistent 25% resorption rate with spider x spider versus controls might suggest homozygous lethal ... But again, it doesn't prove anything.
Why would the follicles be absorbed? They would not get the second spider gene until fertilization from the sperm occurred during ovulation. An egg containing a homo spider should not affect the way the egg is formed. You should still have shell formed just like always. The same way an unfertilized egg can still be perfectly formed. I would think if homo spiders died or never develop after fertilization the snake would still lay some evidence of there being an egg at some point. Once they ovulate something is coming out.