Actually, there has been quite a bit of speculation recently, concerning the possibility of the motley gene being a combination of two genetic traits rather than one. One that makes for the motley dorsum and one that controls the clear belly pattern.
The idea suggested is that there are two genes very close to each other on the DNA strand, which are alomst universally split off together whenever two parental DNA strands are brought together in an offspring. However, because anything that CAN happen, eventually does in corn genetics [
], those two genes have become separated in some specimens.
So, you have motlied dorsum corns with checkered bellies and rather normal looking dorsals atop plain bellies. Is the theory right? I have no idea, but it certainly fits some of the evidence we're beginning to see in those collections that focus heavily on motley corns.
So, your snake could be a motley with very little motley pattern because of a quirk of linebreeding, or it could be a "belly motley, dorsal normal," or it could be something else entirely. Really, the only way to prove what you have one way or the other is to breed the animal to a known motley. If you have motlies, your animal is a motley; if you have normal dorsals with plain bellies, that's what your animal would be; and if they're all normals, well, you're on your own!
