Pos Purple Line Hognoses
A Pos Purple Line western hognose comes from Purple Line stock and may or may not show the colour itself. Judge a listing on its photographs rather than the label, because the depth of red and purple varies from animal to animal.
About the Pos Purple Line gene
Purple Line is a colour line in the western hognose snake, built from extreme red stock and carried toward maroon, burgundy and purple. Pos Purple Line is the possible form of it, for an animal from that stock that may or may not show the colour.
Appearance
A Purple Line hognose is dark red, closer to maroon or burgundy than to a bright red, with purple tones running through the colour. It is in effect a deeper extreme red, built by breeding the darkest extreme reds together. How much purple shows varies from one animal to the next, and some show it only faintly. A Pos Purple Line may carry the full colour, a paler version of it, or none, and the label does not say which, so judge a listing on the photographs.
Genetics
Purple Line is polygenic and line bred: no single gene is behind it, and it does not follow simple Mendelian inheritance. Listings use Pos for line-bred and polygenic traits because a pairing cannot predict the result, so a Pos Purple Line is a possibility rather than a confirmed animal. The family has two forms, Purple Line and Pos Purple Line, with no Het Purple Line. Purple Line is worked into other morphs and sold as Purple Line Albino, Purple Line Anaconda and Purple Line Superconda.