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Leticia Boa Taxonomy! Bci or Bcc?

Art Klass

Art Klass

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Jim Cermak and I have been working on this taxonomic issue. As some of you may know Jim has a breeding pair of Leticias that just had a litter. He sent me a full shed of the female, a large two piece shed of the male and several of the babies sheds.

Here are the results that I found after counting the scales:

From an article by Jerry G. Walls, Subspecies in Boa constrictor, printed in the July, 1998 issue of Reptile Hobbyist the following scale counts for Bci and Bcc were obtained.

Boa constrictor imperator -
Dorsal scales 55 - 79
Ventrals 225 - 259

Boa constrictor constrictor -
Dorsal scales 81 - 95
Ventrals 234 - 243

More specifically, regarding boas from Leticia, derived from The Complete Boa Constrictor by Vincent Russo are the following counts.

Leticia Boa constrictor -
Dorsal scales 82 - 90
Ventrals 238 - 252
Subcaudal 51 - 58

And my shed counts:

adult female Leticia -
Dorsals - 93
Ventrals - 247
Subcaudal - 56

adult male Leticia -
Dorsals - 83
Ventrals - unknown
Subcaudal - unknown

unsexed neonates -
Dorsals - too small even with my glasses.
Ventrals - 246, 244 and 239

Its apparent to me that boas originating from Leticia are indeed Bcc and not Bci. Whether or not they deserve separate subspecies status or not is for greater minds than mine....
 
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