Lessers and Butters

[BaierBalls]

I know genetically these are pretty much the same snake...but how do you actually distinguish one from the other visually?

[rabernet]

Personally, I don't believe that you can.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I don't believe that they're different in the sense of being two discreet alleles (like mojave is clearly discreet and distinct from the "b'lessers"). However, I do think that the original lines of each morph had a distinct "look" to them that could (with selective breeding!) be retained in modern bloodlines -- if only to give meaning to the distinction between the two!

To my eye, a butter looks to have a more uniform brown/gold tone to its coloration (they look "smooth," like, well, butter ) while the lessers should have a bright, popping pattern with a "cool" colored background for a higher-contrast look.

Is that a subtle distinction? Yeah, probably. Do I think you could tell them apart without knowing for sure? Nope, not at all -- especially not if you have someone with "lessers" who has been breeding them for a more "butter" look or vise versa, or if you have babies from a butter x lesser breeding -- at that point I think you'd best just call them all "b'lessers."

I liken it to different lines of pastel ... To me, a lemon pastel should be super bright yellow, high-contrast, with a very busy pattern of stark black overlaying the yellow, while a Graziani should be a very clean yellow or straw blond with a reduced/banded pattern with lots of blushing. But they don't stay that way without selective breeding, so as everyone knows, nowadays you can't buy a pastel based on the bloodline you like; you have to go with the individual animal.

So there. (Dang I type a lot.) Here's my butter and my lesser. Can you tell which is which?

[JNballs]

Comparing with the lesser and butter i have, i would say on the first picture, the snake on top, with the more yellow is the butter?

[stratus_020202]

Lol. I was going to say the opposite. The one with more yellow is the lesser (the one on top).

[joe23]

im 99% sure that the lighter one is the lesser.

butters look more brownish to the eye while lessers are mostly lighter to the eye...

[Kaorte]

I think butters are lighter then lessers. Almost every butter I have seen has been very light. While the lessers I see are sometimes light and sometimes dark.

[Oxylepy]

So there. (Dang I type a lot.) Here's my butter and my lesser. Can you tell which is which?

The one on top is an absolutely gorgeous lesser (the lighter one).

Here is a fun set to try and distinguish:




I'd hate to run into a clutch containing both.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Most folks did get it right -- the one on top (in the first picture; body is on the bottom in the 2nd) is my male lesser; the other is the female butter. (Who, sadly, is actually a year older than him but a MUCH less voracious feeder She's making her bumblebee future boyfriend very disappointed.)

Oxylepy, I'd guess that the first guy in your post is the butter, 2nd is the lesser ...

I wonder if the two lines will be kept relatively separate, or in a few years we'll start calling them all the same thing.

[JNballs]

very interesting, our lesser/butter are completely the other way round:

Lesser:



Butter: