Baby Vipera berus polymorphism

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Re: Baby Vipera berus polymorphism

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:00 pm

Ruggero Morimando wrote:Another thought of mine: black colour and cold climate. With H.viridiflavus it happens exactly the opposite: where I live in northern Italy black specimens are exceptions. In the hot and sunny Sicily they are the normality... :lol: So, we are probably missing something?

What we are "missing" is the complexity of many interwoven factors. It just isn't that simple.
Berislav Horvatic
 
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Re: Baby Vipera berus polymorphism

Postby Patrick Masius » Wed Dec 20, 2017 12:51 pm

Berislav Horvatic wrote:
Paul Aiscan wrote:While most berus in the habitat I have observed are born brown and turn black over time, some are
born black aswell
. Others (around a quarter) keep their brown color with the typical zigzag pattern.

That's a very interesting observation. I've always been told (by experts, no doubt) that no melanistic
adult V. berus had been born as such. Wrong experts, or just a lack of field data, or what?


The first published observation of freshly born melanistic V. berus stems from the year 1852. Close to Greifswald (Germany) a regular coloured female gave birth to two black babies besides some normal ones. A second similar case was published by Hagen in 1886. These cases contributed decisively to the insight that melanistic adders do not represent a separate species (Coluber prester), a belief that was still held in the first half of the 19th century.
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Re: Baby Vipera berus polymorphism

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Wed Dec 20, 2017 8:16 pm

Well, freshly born totally melanistic V. berus - how many reliably observed in a century or two?
I've never seen a single one, but it's fair to admit, I also haven't seen a lot of V. berus juveniles -
of any coloration - they are so terribly secretive...
So, ask the experts, if any. I give up.
Berislav Horvatic
 
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Re: Baby Vipera berus polymorphism

Postby Patrick Masius » Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:08 pm

You're right. These cases must be extremely rare exceptions.
About the degree of blackness: I'd need to check the publications again, but I think that it wasn t specified.
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