"This work and its contents is for the purpose of providing a public and permanent scientific record."
~ Jeff Murray & Michael Saina

Preface

While reading, or in some cases re-reading, material it became apparent to us there are several specific islands in various publications as having an, as of yet, unidentified boa as an inhabitant.  Are they range extensions of known boas, new subspecies or species?  Here are the candidates as written about in the literature:

• C.s. fowleri:  Sheplan and Schwartz (1974) identify a museum specimen from Mangrove Cay in Central Andros.  Mangrove Cay lies between South Bight and Middle Bight; completely isolated from all other C.s. fowleri populations.  This Mangrove Cay specimen is a female with a SVL of 980 mm and is, dorsally, a patternless medium brown.  There is a blueish gray stripe that extends from the rear of the jaw to midbody.  The boa is basically patternless but for some small darker brown blotches below the lateral stripe and a few scattered dorsal black scales.  Since Central Andros and South Andros are both large land masses and completely separated from the east-west bight system, it is possible the boas separated from the boas on North Andros.  This specimen is either an aberrant color/pattern of the subspecies or something new.  More material from the Cay is needed to determine where this locale stands.   (p88-89)
•  C.f. fordii:  Sheplan & Schwartz (1974) lament the lack of specimens from different areas on the island and remark on the difficulty of assessing geographic variation with the species.  They feel collecting more specimens throughout the range of E. fordii will result in the species consisting of at least 3 populations.
•   C.f. fordii:  Schwartz writes of fordii in 1979 (p254), while describing C.f. manototus:  “There are also apparently isolated populations at Cap-Haitien on the northern Haitian coast and in the Valle de Cibao in northwestern Republica Dominicana; these two populations are questionably assigned to C.f. fordii.  A third isolate has been recently discovered on Isla Catalina by R.I. Crombie (pers. comm.).  That island is far (135 km) to the east of the previously easternmost locality record (Limonal) for the species.”
• C.s. strigilatus:  Sheplan & Schwartz (1974) write,”The species may occur on Green Cay on the eastern edge of the Tongue of the Ocean.  That isolated islet has a poorly known but remarkably diverse herpetofauna.”    Can it be found there?  If so, is it C.s. strigilatus, a subspecies or a new species?  (p80)
• C. chrysogaster:  Buden writes in 1975; There are unconfirmed reports of its existence on East Caicos, Providenciales and Pine Cay .  He also mentions the fact that Mayaguana, even though in line between the Caicos Bank and the Crooked-Acklins Bank, is devoid of the boa.  Though Mayaguana is similar in topography as the other two banks, it has but two lizards as inhabitants.
• C. chrysogaster:  In addition to Buden, in 1987 Tolson also depicts Mayaguana on a map and denotes the island with a question mark. Can C. chrysogaster be found there?

• C. exsul:  Sheplan and Schwartz opine in 1974, “Since there is only one specimen available from Little Abaco, it is impossible to compare the populations of E. exsul on Little and Great Abaco. However, the following data are of interest. The Little Abaco specimen (CM 45450) is the largest male exsul (the larger of the two Great Abaco males has a 525 mm snout-vent length), it has the only pre-intersupraocular scale count of 3 (all other snakes have 5 scales in this position), and has the only post-intersupraocular count of 3 (4 or 5 on Great Abaco). The Little Abaco male also sets the low parameters of anterior and posterior dorsal scale rows (28 on neck, 19 before vent). The scale differences between this snake and those from Great Abaco suggest that some differentiation has taken place.” (Sheplan & Schwartz, 1974).
• The question of E.s. versicolor has never been truly settled.  Sheplan and Schwartz remark:  “If at some future time the Bahamian snakes presently regarded as E. striatus strigilatus are subdivided, then versicolor will require further consideration.”
• A population of C. gracilis exists at the east side of the Barahona Peninsula in the south of the Dominican Republic. Sheplan and Schwartz examined four specimens from this population and noted that they were similar in size to the C. g. hapalus specimens, however the ventral counts of these snakes resembled closer those of C. g. gracilis. Thus Sheplan and Schwartz suggested that this population represents extreme intergrades between C. g. hapalus and C. g. gracilis. They noted that there are no specimens of C. g. hapalus closer than 150 kilometers to the west (Port-au-Prince, Diquini, Ca Ira) in Haiti, although apparently suitable habitat occurs abundantly between the eastern coast of the Peninsula de Barahona and the base of the Tiburon Peninsula . However, Tolson and Henderson, as well as Henderson and Powell assigned this population with a questionmark . It is presently unclear if this population is a natural variation of C. g. hapalus, an intergrade form between the two subspecies or a third – yet undescribed – subspecies of C. gracilis.

We bring attention to these questions, and many others,  throughout the chapters and accounts.  Work in the West Indies has swiftly grown, yet is far from complete.  The question is, do we have the time to find the answers before the boas and their habitat disappear?

Introduction

Why did we choose a website over other more popular media platforms?

We list all currently recognized species and subspecies of West Indian boas. Each species account is a leaf to a genus account which has its roots in the overall Boa account.  The Blog posts and articles will, with the continuation of the site, be replaced from the start page as content is generated.  The Chapters contain information, much like in a book, and  will remain in their current structure.  A link to continue to the next chapter is provided after the text before the Citation section on the bottom of each page.  Click on every red hyperlink – it will take you somewhere or show you something.  Clicking on a chart, map or photo will, in most cases, enlarge them.  There is  an enormous amount of material here-too much for one or two sittings. We spent a large amount of time to curate our library. We provide a unique literature search engine under the chapter: knowledge database. We tagged all literature with the current proper name of the species referred to in the paper. Thus, you are able to find information regarding your species or region of interest by simply typing the currently valid scientific name, e.g. Chilabothrus strigilatus even if the boa was referred to as Epicrates striatus in the paper.  – Last but not least, take your time; there is a test when you have finished reading all the material on our website.

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