Show & Tell
Thank you, Pete Quinlin, for these mother & son Gray-banded Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis alterna). The adult mother of this leucistic Gray-band is obviously het for leucism. Her phenotype suggests that like most leucistic serpent mutants, she is a Visual Het of a mutation that is incompletely-dominant to wild type. In other words, with one copy of the paired gene mutation, she has a look that is generally distinguishable from the nominate form of her species (faded scales in and around the orange markings). Yes, we realize that Gray-banded kings are a relatively young species since they are so generally polymorphic, in so much as Gray-bands have been captured with this look that were surely not het. for leucism. Both of these snakes were displayed on our tables at the recent NARBC Reptile Expo last last month in Arlington, Texas.
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