wanted to share my favorite ball with you guys

[KitaCat]

Hmm... Fire?

[Chkadii]

It looks like it's in the BEL complex. Honey?

[darkranger69]

yes bel complex but not honey

[MARV]

How could u tell its in Bel complex @CHKadii ? I'm just trying to learn more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kitedemon]

I have been too long out of university to remember my genetics clearly any more. Isn't a 'complex' a family of alleles that produce a certain trait?

A BEL from a mojave x mojave or lesser x lesser or lesser x mojave. Lesser and mojave (phantom, mocha, russo, and what ever I am forgetting) are part of the BEL complex. But correct me if I am wrong, a BEL (blue eyed leucistic) complex isn't a morph just a group of morphs?

[Chkadii]

How could u tell its in Bel complex @CHKadii ? I'm just trying to learn more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's hard to properly explain what to look for. If you do an image search and compare mojaves to mystics and/or butters, take a look at their pattern more so than their colors. A typical part of their pattern includes rosettes along their sides (aka "alien heads" or "doughnuts") that look like molars or upside down guitar picks. They're generally smoother in appearance - not many thin squiggles or hooks coming off of them like with pastels. Sometimes you do see a rosette pattern "drip" up to the spine. When the patterns on each side connect over the back, it kind of looks like a horse's bit. Occassionally the patterns are free floating, like doughnuts, and other times they get thin towards the bottom of the pattern and extend down to the belly.

The holes or negative spaces in the side patterns can range from circles, triangles, hearts, and figure 8's, but the size of the holes is usually pretty consistent to the size of the side pattern, almost like the pattern was drawn on with a thick marker. On cleaner individuals (I see it most often with butters/lessers), the patterns don't have any holes at all.

"Underneath" the patterns, the base color is generally very smooth with blushing more common than defined "flames." some blushes go all the way up to the spine pattern as if the pattern had a dark outline, and others just have some blushing at the bottom of the side patterns.

The colors further define the morphs; mojaves have a green/grey look to them with a yellow spinal stripe. Mystics are typically darker and more of a brown/buckskin coloring. Butters have a creamier tan/yellow look. Specials seem to have bright tan/golden patterns on a brown base. Some BEL type snakes have sort of silvery eyes, but not all.

I have been too long out of university to remember my genetics clearly any more. Isn't a 'complex' a family of alleles that produce a certain trait?

A BEL from a mojave x mojave or lesser x lesser or lesser x mojave. Lesser and mojave (phantom, mocha, russo, and what ever I am forgetting) are part of the BEL complex. But correct me if I am wrong, a BEL (blue eyed leucistic) complex isn't a morph just a group of morphs?

That's the gist of it, but I think technically (as far as ball python morphs) it refers to different morphs that have the morph gene sitting on the same locus. I suppose it's where you bring in the "acts like super" definition, because a mojave x butter is very different than a crystal or Mystic potion, as is an ivory from a super stripe. It'd be hard to define what the "certain trait" is for each complex.

[Asherah]

Mystic?

[MARV]

@Chkadii really appreciate for your explanation which is so detailed .This definitely would help me as a future reference . I hope I have chance to see more morphs in person to study them better as sometimes it's hard to see the true quality of the animals in photos. I m going to look up for the comparison between the bel complex now Ty again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[darkranger69]

not a mystic: mystic and phantom are darker than that girl: she is a Het. Russo.
thanks for the guessing game. i loved to shared her pictures and will do more after she lays.

[kitedemon]

So what you are saying is it is for all outward appearances is a normal? Unless heterozygous has been changed to define something else? I have always thought hets were an animal that appears to be normal but carries a recessive gene.