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Motley vs Stripe Visually

E

Eiram

New member
I know that the genes are obviously what makes a snake a motley or a stripe, but purely visually, I'm trying to understand the difference between the two especially when the motley has that almost perfect "stripe" look. What I think I'm seeing is that motley's head pattern at the neck comes together, so to speak, before the striping begins where as a striped snake's head/neck pattern does not.

Is this accurate? I may not be explaining it correctly, but I hope you guys understand what I mean.
 
Someone else will have to explain the difference to you, I'm terrible at that. But what makes stripe and motley so interesting is that not only does the appearance of both vary greatly, they are allelic to each other and codominant. Meaning that a het motley-het stripe snake will have an appearance somewhere in between the two looks, although the motley influence is generally greater than the stripe.
 
Motley is dominant to stripe. So stripe is recessive to motley. Some motleys look just like a stripe, but will usually have a bridge across the neck and irregularities in the stripe.
 
This one I had assumed to be a stripe but it does have that bridge across the neck which made me question my original assumption.
 

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In the pure equation, where the motley parent comes from motleys for a couple generations back, with no stripe in its background,
and the stripe parent comes from stripes only for a few generations back,
then motley is dominant to stripe,
so in this pure lineages example, motley X stripe =100% motley, 100% het stripe.

Breeding those offspring

a) to each other will produce around 100% motleys, and some will have a striped pattern, but still be motleys. But once in awhile a classic/wild-type pattern pops up.

b) X stripe will produce some motleys, some striped motleys, and about 25% stripes.
-but if the stripe parent is het motley then sometimes you'll get babies which later prove out to be homozygous for one gene of motley, 1 gene of stripe.

Results get messy and deviate away from punnets the more the genomes are mixed back n forth/loosened up. Some stripes will still have the bridge across the back of the neck from the motley background, but have the rabbit ears thing going on as well. Sometimes pattern starts to disappear in places down the back, or cube patterns emerge, or butterfly/batwing patterns emerge (which can then be line-bred)...

Just keep mixing them up some more, loosening up the genome further.
Might as well toss in some vanishing pattern and widestripe and pinstripe and zipperstripe and terrazzo and tessera to the mix, just for kicks n giggles.
And some hypos and diffusion to hide the pattern here and there.

I tried to learn all this once upon a time but quit. For me anyways, the corn calc lies a lot.
 
From what I understood, the two genes are simply co-dominant to each other, residing on the same Locus much like the Ultra and Amel genes do.
The unexpected resaults are due to the unpredictable relationship between the two genes- they both express themselves to some degree and it varies for each snake that bear both of them.

Breeding Motley Stripes to each other will yield: 25% Motleys, 25% Stripes, and 50% Motley Stripes.

Made sense to me so far... isn't this the hereditary mechanism?
 
One of these days I need to go to FL just so I can sit down with you, DP. And then I can correct all the nonsense you keep trying to rile me up with. :)
 
So if I were buying a snake sold as a stripe, I would look for rabbit ears pattern to confirm its a stripe and not a motley? And lack of the bridge?
 
dreamwallaby said:
So if I were buying a snake sold as a stripe, I would look for rabbit ears pattern to confirm its a stripe and not a motley? And lack of the bridge?
Click to expand...

Sometimes stripes can have the bridge too, so that isn't a definite marker. The width of the center stripe in both stripes and motleys is usually the best way to go. A striped specimen will have a wider dorsal stripe than a motley, no matter which phenotype you're looking at, with the exception of really nice sunspot and cubed examples. But even then, a good cube or sunspot is a stripe indicator.
 
The main way to tell the difference between a stripe and a motley (or striped motley) is the width of the actual stripe and the distance between the stripes. A true stripe will have a narrower stripe with a greater distance between them when compared to a striped motley whose stripe is wider with a shorter distance between them. In a motley, you will also often see irregularities as if someone was trying to color it with a crayon and didn't stay within the lines, so to speak. I have an old thread with some comparison photos and will see if I can find it and link it.
 
Awesome, thank you Susan for the pics and thanks to everyone else for the info. Thanks to you again Nanci, I think you'd already labeled this guy as a stripe before. I wasn't questioning that, but I was confused about the motley vs stripe differences when I was looking through the Ians Vivarium site and kept seeing stripes with no bridge and motleys with the bridge. Mine was the only pic I had on hand that showed the bridge but was a stripe. But again, thank you, thank you to everyone for putting up with my newbness.
 
These are old pics of two brothers that are both lavenders but one is motley stripe and one is stripe. You can really see the difference in these two, I think.
John

09StrpMotStrp1_zps441e3f98.jpg


09StrpMotStrp2_zpsf481ac8b.jpg
 
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