Quote Originally Posted by kc261 View Post
It is both genetics coming from the same parent, however it is different than getting a super pastel from a super pastel x normal pairing.

Genes come in pairs, and each animal has THOUSANDS of pairs of genes. When animals produce eggs or sperm, the gene pairs are divided in half, so each offspring gets 1 gene out of each pair from each parent, and the other in each pair comes from the other parent.

Some people find it helpful to think of it as two rows of houses, one on each side of the street. A pair is the 2 houses that face each other. So the first pair is the 2 houses on the corners, then the next pair are the second 2 houses, etc. To get a super pastel, you have to have both houses in a pair be pastel genes, but only one of those 2 is passed on to offspring. However, lots of other genes (all the houses on the same side of the street) are also passed on. The spider gene is located in a different pair. So let's say a bumblebee has a pastel gene in the corner house, and a spider gene in the second house, both on the left side of the street. Both of those can be passed on to a single offspring. But since the super pastel has pastel genes in both corner houses, only one of those can be passed on to a single offspring.

Now, just so you don't get confused, in that example, it might sound like the bumblebee will only have bumblebee offspring or normal offspring, since I said both of those genes are on the left side of the street. Actually, when eggs and sperm are being formed, there is a special process that somewhat randomizes the division of the gene pairs, so one time the spider & pastel gene might end up together, but the next they might be separated.
now thats a way to dumb it down for us