Thamnophis marcianus marcianus ‘Harlequin’
Zhou jie
Dear EGSA members, As a breeder of various Thamnophis species (especially the checkered garter snake, Thamnophis m. marcianus) from Shanghai, China, I would like to briefly introduce myself and some of my observations. My name is Zhou Jie, and I first came into contact with the genus Thamnophis at the end of 2014. At that time, only the wild-coloured form of Thamnophis m. marcianus and its amelanistic variant were available in China. In the following years, various other species/subspecies and colour variants of the garter snake were gradually introduced to China and thus became available to local breeders.
Over time and through my successful breeding of garter snakes, I have come to believe that the various Thamnophis species are highly intelligent snakes with social behaviour that tend to live in groups. In my opinion, with long-term interaction, they can even form special bonds with humans.
In addition, in the middle of last year, I succeeded in breeding three exceptionally coloured young Thamnophis m. marcianus. Through conversations with Anke dreier and Jennifer rejchel, I learned that these three snakes belong to the already known colour variant ‘Harlequin’. During our exchange, I also learned that this colour variant had already been described in Germany in 2013, but that subsequent breeding attempts had failed.
This unusual colour variant is characterized by the fact that some of the animals are amelanistic, while others have the colouring of the wild type.
Among the individuals that became known or were presented in 2013, some even had a head that was half wild-coloured (including the eye), while the other half of the head, including the affected eye, was amelanistic.
The three snakes born to me were the offspring of a wild-coloured male, which, however, appeared significantly lighter overall than the known wild types, and two amelanistic females from different lines.
In addition to their unique colouring, my offspring also exhibit heterochromia of the eyes. Furthermore, one of the young animals has some unusually light features. Since the litters included both light-coloured young animals of the wild type and amelanistic young animals, it is clear that the male involved must be heterozygous for amelanism.
I plan to carry out a backcross of the male young born last year with their mothers in 2027 or 2028 to check whether a corresponding inheritance pattern is repeatable and whether it is therefore a classic inheritance pattern. The aim is also to determine whether the characteristic features of ‘Harlequin’ can be enhanced through the targeted selection of the breeding animals involved.
Captions:
01: Here you can see the significantly lighter wild-coloured breeding male.
02: The three harlequin young from the litter together.
03: In addition to the three harlequins, there were wild-coloured and amelanistic young in the litter.
04: Each of the three young looks different.
05: This animal has fewer spots and is significantly lighter in colour.
06: This is most pronounced in this animal.
07-08: Here, the focus is on the animal’s heterochromatic eyes.