Quote Originally Posted by RandyRemington View Post
Don't mean to give you a hard time, but: isn't it just as much speculation that there might be a homozygous spider as that spider might be homozygous lethal? No one seems to have any good proof of either so why would one opinion be more likely than the other.

Also, if homozygous spider is possible then the difference between seeing the first one and proving it through breeding should be a limited number of years. What I'm getting at is why should everyone have given up on ever seeing a visually different homozygous spider years and years ago yet still hold out so much hope for proving a non-visually different homozygous spider through breeding? I realize every spider doesn't get bred at two years, especially the females but when was spider declared dominant anyway?
Well, the reason I think it is more likely that homozygous spiders exist than that homozygous spider is lethal is because I've heard credible rumors of the first, and nothing but speculation of the 2nd. There is a member on this forum who claims to own a spider that has only been bred a fairly limited number of times, but so far has produced 100% spider offspring. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that claim. I've also heard 2nd or 3rd hand of some others who have been bred quite a bit more and still throw 100% spiders. Now, I realize this proves nothing, which is why I said I believe this possibility over the other one, rather than saying this is a fact.

It would be an easy enough thing to get pretty convincing proof if either one big breeder or a group of smaller breeders would pair known het spider to known het spider (or spider combos would work as well of course), and document the offspring ratios. 3/4 spider means it is non-lethal dominant with no visible homozygous form, 2/3 spider means it is co-dominant with a lethal homozygous form.