Well,
what makes a WB a Pepper? what makes a Pepper a Chilly Pepper?
I asume that the bead head and the red / orange thread, which forms the
neck below the bead are necessary to make it a Pepper.
Whaddayall think?
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The first thing that comes to my mind is the tinsel chenille (flash
chenille, crystal chenille or whatever the manufacturer has named it as)
instead of the regular chenille. Next thing will be the 8 strands of crystal
flash in the tail.
I, personally, don't think the bead should matter. I mean a bead on a Hare's
Ear Nymph didn't make it seize to be a Hare's Ear Nymph... it just got to be
a Beadheaded HEN. So a Woolly Bugger with a bead should just make it a
Beadheaded Woolly Bugger.
So, to be scientific about then (thinking in parallel with what I learned
from herpetology studies):
My own Black Peppers have all the ingredients that the true Chili Pepper
('Chili pepprus pepprus') has, only in black, which I think makes them
'Peppers'. Really just the same species spreading to other habitats and
mother nature creates color adaptations. Sometimes these will be refered as
subspecies ('Chili pepprus blackentrix') and sometimes they will be refered
only as a color variant of the species. When I tied my Grizzly Peppers, the
evolution step was more radical, since now we're talking a different kind of
marabou feathers... and an actual physical change is good enough to make
them a subspecies (Chili pepprus grizzlii).
Now Ian has tied a variant of my Black Pepper using 'black chenille with
just a touch of flash', chenille/flash blend... so now it gets more
interesting. If my Black Pepper is one of those "color variants", then Ian's
fly (with a PHYSICAL material change), would be a subspecies to the Chili
Pepper and a "brother" to the Grizzly Pepper... maybe a 'Chili pepprus
chenastes'. But if my Black Pepper made it to subspecies, the rock might
start to roll. Ian's variant might actually break the family into two. I
don't have a PhD, but I know this has happened to some snakes. A new snake
variant is found and they cheer "YES!!! ANOTHER SUBSPECIES!!!"... but then
they discover that this isn't correct. The snake has turned out to be closer
to an already existing subspeices than it is to the actual top species. They
won't give it a fourth name. They won't place it as a separate species,
since it's closer to another snake's subspecies than the true species.
So...... the already existing subspecies will be put as a new species, with
the new snake as it's subspecies. So my Black Pepper gets kicked out of the
Pepper family and gets named 'Chili leechus leechus' and Ian's fly gets
named 'Chili leechus chenastes'.
And now we enter the comic side of the scientific side. I've heard or read
something about the Chili Pepper first started as some kind of joke. Someone
refused to tie a bugger on the tippet and this, or a variant, was given to
him. Something like that. Obviously this will be hard proof that the Chili
Pepper is a younger species than the WB. The difference between them are
merely the flash material and the bead.
Evolution grabbed hold of the bugger and turned it into a Chili Pepper,
which developed subspecies of its own. Ian's fly made it too crowded so the
fly I tied as a subspecies got kicked to a new branch on the tree. Nature
forms and adapts and species are born, just like it has always been...
except in this case. The Peppers had left chenille a long time ago, but when
Ian chose chenille/flash blend for the body of his fly 'Chili leechus
chenastes', his fly is actually taking the 'Chili leechus' family back to
where it started... Buggers. Nature going in reverse!!! And since my fly is
now on top of that branch, I will be the one taking the fall for starting
it.
...and this while the 'Chili pepprus' family advances and advances. :o(
/Nick
