Ike,
....There is enormous varation in color and pattern in both snakes. Many but not all of our captive Peruvians have thicker and darker markings than Brazilians. Many but not all adult Peruvians have deep dark intense red color. There are newly imported Brazilians from the northeastern part of their range that "look" like my Peruvians. Scale counts are IMO the only real externally visible difference. Perhaps the authors of the paper are right in dividing Rainbows up into five seperate species but perhaps xerophilus and hygrophylous and gaigei and barbouri do deserve continued subspecific status. This still leaves the unanswered question about Guyana Rainbows. They are too different to fit into any of their five species.
Jeff

>>After reading all of this (and I must say, it is very interesting and informative reading) I have found myself debating whether or not there are significant differences in the two subspecies. My question for everyone is this....
>>
>>Beyond the difference in scale counts, what traits really make a Brazilian a Brazilian and a Peruvian a Peruvian??? I know that locality specific data might play into this but I also know that most everyone on this forum deals in CB almost exclusively.
>>
>>I have also heard many refer to Peruvians as having bolder head markings and overall bolder black highlights and more of a red background color. On the other hand though, BRBs show an amazing variation in color. In the one litter I produced this year of 25 babies their colors and patterns have ranged from high orange to deep red to even more of a drab brown. This leads me to believe that if based soley off of looks and color one might easily confuse a BRB for a PRB and vice versa. This is why I love BRBs, they have amazing color variations naturally.
>>
>>So, what makes a Peruvian a Peruvian? Especially after many generations of captive breeding. I'm starting to feel like this is very similar to many of the common boa guys locality debates. And my favorite response I ever read to those questions/debates are that they are nice "common pet boa constrictors" and if one were to say anything more specific (i.e. a colombian boa etc) they would be simply guessing.
>>
>>Sorry to ramble, I look forward to hearing everyones thoughts!
>>-----
>>Ike Lightner
>>
>>2.3 BRB (Dugo, Sultan, Roxy, Brazita, & Lucille)

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