Hi all –

This note was prompted by a question from Chrish about sexing smooth scaled sand boas, Eryx johnii, over a month ago. I figured no one would notice if I replied in the original thread way down the page.

He had probed what is most likely a female, but asked “Do males even get to 30 inches?” That made me curious, so I checked my two largest males. Since they were being squirmy, I restrained them in clear tubes for accurate measurements.

The larger was born in 1990 and is 36.5 inches. The other is his father which I obtained as an adult in 1989. He is just shy of 29 inches.

And for Rick Staub who always mentions the “obvious spurs” on male johnii – Is it your young eyes or do you use a hand lens? Even on those big males of mine, it’s easier for me to feel the sharp points of those very tiny spurs than to see them. They’re not THAT much bigger than the spurs on my largest females. Anyway, unless it's got monster equipment like that below, I probe darn near every snake to determine its sex

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• Size of smooth-scaled sand boas, Eryx johnii - jfmoore, Tue Jan 3 03:32:04 2006
• RE: Size of smooth-scaled sand boas, Eryx johnii - Rick Staub, Wed Jan 4 02:20:57 2006