As far as herpetological activity and research, India probably ranks near the top worldwide. Some of the most well know research scholars come from India. Dr. Indraneil Das, the person who described E. whitakeri, is one of the world’s foremost herpetologists and Chairman of the IUCN South Asian Reptile and Amphibian Research Group. Rom Whitaker, after which this new species of sand boa was named, is extremely well known not only for his research on reptiles in India, but many other counties as well. Dr. Anselm de Silva, while from nearby Sri Lanka, is also extremely well known throughout the world herp community for extensive research on reptiles and amphibians of India. All of the above are affiliated in some way with the Center for Herpetology/ Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, one of the worlds most recognized herpetological research institutes founded in the mid 1970’s. Many other professional herpetologists are connected to this institute and involved in numerous research projects in India. They also publish the very well known professional herpetological journal Hamadryad.

On the hybrid issue, I definitely agree with you in that it would be interesting to see mDNA sequence data on these three species to determine their phylogenetic relationships. However, my guess would be it most likely would show that whitakeri is very closely related to conicus, and that these two are only distantly related to johnii by a similar margin. The red specimen in the previous video may indeed be a hybrid, but most likely a hybrid between conicus and whitakeri. Great discussion on an interesting topic.

Kelly

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