Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was curious about people's thoughts or experiences on heat sensing in epicrates. I have an E. c. alvarezi and an E. c. 'guyana', and both seem to have what looks like the beginnings of pits along their upper labials. I know that b. constrictor has extremely heat-sensitive labials in spite of lacking pits, and it seems that epicrates might possess an intermediate degree of heat-sensing organ development as compared to corallus. This might already be common knowledge, but I have not read any discussion of heat sensing in epicrates.

I, for one, have seen what looks like heat sensing in the alvarezi - once while feeding her a room-temperature rodent in dim light she went after my hand, ten inches away from the mouse - something that could happen for all kinds of stupid reasons, of course, but very odd behavior for her.

Billysbrown,
. I am almost certain that they do have highly adapted heat sensing ability. The strange looking arrangement of the faces of the labial scales all oriented in the same direction has to be for some purpose. Perhaps they could be even more advanced and effective than the heat sensing pits on other boids. These snakes are very nocturnal and are much more likely to find and eat a warm dead item than a room emperature one. A friend has been doing research on heat sensing in snakes. I will see him at the expo next week and ask what he thinks about heat sensing in E. cenchria.
Jeff

>>I was curious about people's thoughts or experiences on heat sensing in epicrates. I have an E. c. alvarezi and an E. c. 'guyana', and both seem to have what looks like the beginnings of pits along their upper labials. I know that b. constrictor has extremely heat-sensitive labials in spite of lacking pits, and it seems that epicrates might possess an intermediate degree of heat-sensing organ development as compared to corallus. This might already be common knowledge, but I have not read any discussion of heat sensing in epicrates.
>>
>>I, for one, have seen what looks like heat sensing in the alvarezi - once while feeding her a room-temperature rodent in dim light she went after my hand, ten inches away from the mouse - something that could happen for all kinds of stupid reasons, of course, but very odd behavior for her.

Jeff, if you do find out any info on this please post it! I'm very curious as well.