I guess I have seen well over a thousand imported cherryhead redfoots up close over the years... many more than that in total, but up close, I would say over a thousand. What I have noticed is that many of the really marbled adult animals seem to be lacking bright color. True, some very marbled cherryheads do in fact have some bright red on them---but in general, the ones with the unusually marbled shells do not have a lot of color on their legs or heads. Here are some examples:
This is a small adult female with a gorgeous carapace but not much color...
This is another smallish adult female with a very marbled shell and yet what color she has seems quite muted. She is really neat looking nonetheless...
This is a fairly good sized (beautiful!) marbled female that also has a lot of color but once again, it isn't red...
Lastly, take a look at this male. What a BIZARRE little beast he is!
Who stole all of his color?
As you can see, he has almost no color on his legs and very little on his head. You can also see that he has been fighting with other males from the scuffs on his face. This male has to be one of the strangest cherryheads I've ever seen.
So I am wondering, is there some genetic trait that goes along with the marbling that also controls color?
This is a small adult female with a gorgeous carapace but not much color...
This is another smallish adult female with a very marbled shell and yet what color she has seems quite muted. She is really neat looking nonetheless...
This is a fairly good sized (beautiful!) marbled female that also has a lot of color but once again, it isn't red...
Lastly, take a look at this male. What a BIZARRE little beast he is!
Who stole all of his color?
As you can see, he has almost no color on his legs and very little on his head. You can also see that he has been fighting with other males from the scuffs on his face. This male has to be one of the strangest cherryheads I've ever seen.
So I am wondering, is there some genetic trait that goes along with the marbling that also controls color?