D. M. melanurus vs unicolor -differences?

I noticed that breeding 2 blacktail cribos--with distinctly black tails--can result in an occasional non blacktailed offspring--so the question at hand is, is this animal still a blacktail (D. m.melanurus)? It may look like a unicolor, but can you call it that purely based on tail color?

I thought unicolor was a subspecies clearly defined, as was melanurus..?

Black Pearl's website offers some perspective on the melanurus/unicolor discussion. See both the blacktail and the unicolor pages:
http://www.blackpearlreptiles.com/bl...lacktail/c1vfh

And, they have some beautiful creatures of every Drymarchon subspecies, for your viewing pleasure!

How could it possibly be a different species if uni x uni=BT and BT x BT =uni are occasional possibilities?
Also, geographic overlap in the ranges of the BT and unicolor are documented.

As SNOWGYRE (Vanessa) points out in an associated thread, the taxonomy is rapidly changing, as cheaper DNA testing becomes available.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...=177997&page=4

The question might be whether the two are indeed separate SUB-species, which interbreed, or whether they're merely different races / color phases, like red-throat or all-black couperi?

Time and testing will tell.