User blog comment:Aandrew07/Discussion of the Week: Monster Variants/@comment-87.65.141.234-20121201161051

Could Ashen Lao-Shan Lung be considered as a simple variant ?

Technically it's the same as a regular Lao, except that its shells became grey due to the large amount of ashes of the many volcanic areas it went trough, and this Lao is supposed to be just older than the red/crimson one.

Also, I think somes subspecies in Frontier are actually regular monsters during mating season.