Asphalt Royal Pythons

The Asphalt gene is one of the quieter ones in the Yellow Belly complex. It produces warmer markings and heavy flaming in a royal python (ball python) when it appears alone. This gene shows most clearly in the super or when it is combined with other genes of its complex. Because it is easy to mislabel a single-gene animal, this matters once you plan a pairing around it.

Appearance

At first glance, a single-gene Asphalt looks like a normal royal python. You can tell them apart by the extensive flaming where flames run up the flanks between the markings. Because the ground colour is rich enough, the black puzzle-piece markings of a normal look almost tan. Usually the crown is a light tanned brown and the headstamp has paler scales towards the back of the head. While some animals show spotting, the belly is typically clean and unpatterned with checkered edging. The tail follows the usual colouring of the complex and often ends in beading or a thick stripe.

Because Asphalt, Yellow Belly and Gravel overlap closely enough, picking out an Asphalt by eye is unreliable, and a genetic test exists for the gene. For a single-gene animal, a test result is worth more than a photograph.

The two-copy form, Super Asphalt, looks clearly different from a single-gene animal.

Genetics

Asphalt is incomplete dominant, though the hobby still calls it "co-dom". The family includes Asphalt and Super Asphalt, and since one copy is visible, there is no het. Asphalt is allelic with Spark, Specter, Flare, Gravel and Yellow Belly, which is the group known as the Super Stripe complex or the Yellow Belly complex. Pavement is the name for Asphalt with Gravel, while Freeway is the name for Asphalt with Yellow Belly. Both are names for a two-gene animal, not separate genes. In 2009, Todd Constable first produced Asphalt.