Welcome back, and nice choice getting back in with Argentines.



You’re not alone in being confused - the Epicrates situation has been a bit of a moving target over the years. The Chimaira book is decent overall, but like you noticed, a lot of it leans heavily on the Matz paper, which itself stirred up quite a bit of debate.



The lumping of barbouri with maurus is one of those points that doesn’t sit well with everyone. A lot of keepers (especially in the US) still treat barbouri more in line with the “red” forms like gaigei based on phenotype and locality history, even if the genetic data suggests otherwise. It’s one of those classic cases of genetics vs. what people have been observing in captivity for years.



And you’re absolutely right about European stock there’s been so much mixing over time that applying strict subspecies labels can get pretty murky. “Paraguayan” in particular seems to have been used pretty loosely depending on the line.



At this point, I tend to take the newer classifications as a useful framework, but not the final word, especially from a keeper’s perspective. There’s still a gap between field data and what we actually see in captive populations.



Would be interesting to hear what lines your Argentines come from.

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