Hey everyone!
This girl was hatched from one of my first clutches and I was pretty confident on her ID as ghi lesser, but as she’s aged (and looking at her pattern more recently) I’m wondering if spider is present in her as well?
The pairing was ghi hypo x Mojave lesser (possible bumblebee, got 2 others that had spider in the clutch so confirmed she carries the gene).
Here’s some photos of her as a hatchling, and one of her next to a ghi Mojave and ghi lesser pastel spider sibling.
And here’s a couple more recent photos of her, for comparison…
I my original ID correct, or does anyone see spider in her? Spider in lesser/Mojave +ghi stuff seems pretty hard sometimes.
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It kinda does have a ghi bumblebee with probably Mojave look to it, with the dorsal and white coming up from the belly on the sides. The sides more uniform then you would expect from a bel ghi. Honestly though I don’t have experience personally with all these genes, especially in one animal! Just had that look of bumblebee a little to me. Please wait for someone really familiar with all these genes to chime in for a more accurate id. Had to comment though, it’s a beautiful snake! (Whatever it is😄)
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The baby pictures made me think it was just ghi lesser, but as it’s aged it looks more like it “could” have spider in there. The hatchling in the first pic on the bottom right is what I had listed as a ghi lesser bumblebee, so the distinct back stripe of this hatchling is what is throwing me off. Plus the color.
Thanks for the feedback, and I agree. It’s why she’s been a holdback 
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Yes to spider in my opinion. GHI Mojave spider combos can be weird because they pretty much entirely lack the spider headstamp, which is one of the most reliable ways to ID spider in any combo. But based on her coloring, the side pattern/reduced pattern between markings, and her sheer brightness, I’m very confident saying she is indeed spider. I would tend toward GHI mojave spider over GHI lesser spider based on the general coloring, but I’ll be perfectly up front and say I do not work with neuro genes at all, so my experience IDing them is from pictures only.
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Interesting… see I thought lesser due to the coloration. Mojave tends to have a more “brown” color to it, from my experience while lesser is a more silver/yellow tone. And she’s definitely gotten much more yellow as she aged.
I had the snake in the first photo on the left ID’d as a ghi Mojave… maybe I’ve got to do some more research about these combos then.
Editing to add… I looked up some more examples of ghi Mojave spider and now I’m confusing myself… well this is fun.
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Based on the pictures I’ve seen, GHI lesser doesn’t have quite as strong an interaction as GHI mojave, and it’s been easier to ID the spider headstamp. But again, I don’t work with spider at all in my collection.
The one you have labeled as a GHI mojave in the first picture also has pastel.
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You’re right about the silvery tone in GHI lesser vs. brown tone in GHI mojave without spider, but with spider both of those combos can change drastically.
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Then just out of curiosity, what do you see for the bottom snake in that first image? Here’s a solo shot of it.
I’m thinking I’m going to avoid getting spider in my ghi moving forward. Definitely makes it more complicated lol
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I think I was hesitant about labeling any of them as pastel, as I wasn’t 100% certain mom carried it, but I did notice that he was much lighter and a lot more pattern was visible. I know ghi Mojave’s are very variable, so that plays a role too, but good to know that I’ve finally sorted out the other genes in my BEL!
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I think your ID on that snake is correct - GHI pastel spider mojave or lesser, I’m not sure which.
The big giveaway on pastel in that GHI mojave pastel is the headstamp. The grayish eye stripes that connect behind the head is a pastel marker for sure. Without pastel, you’d be looking at a nearly jet-black head with thin eye stripes that don’t connect behind the head. Yours has a more gray tone too - another pastel marker.
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