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I recently asked for some headshots of BRB's with the intent of trying to see if there might be some scalation difference between BRB's and ARB's. I haven't been able to count scales on my ARB yet, my photography skills and/or my camera aren't good enough yet. Anyway, one casual observation is that Brazilians (and Colombians and Peruvians) seem to have a pretty obvious difference in head pattern when compared with ARB's. (This is not a peer reviewed scientific study, just some anecdotal information from someone who had a few minutes to kill while at work today. I only had about half a dozen pics of ARB's that I could find.) But for what it's worth, the BRB/CRB/PRB's virtually all had a set of 5 parallel lines on their heads. The lines immediately next to the center line (on the top of the head) on either side touch the top of the each eye. (See first two pics) All the ARB samples I found had the lines broken up, and the lines that on the BRB's touch the eyes do not do so on the ARB's. Those lines curve up towards the center of the head *above* the scale that borders the top of the eye. What does this mean? I have no clue, just thought it was interesting.

Have any BRB breeders ever seen a BRB with a head pattern similar to the ARB's posted below?

Jeff, do you happen to have any heads shots of your assisi or other uncommon subspecies?

Thanks again for the head shots Aubrey and Speerbeer.

BRB Posted by Speerbeer:

BRB Posted by Aubrey:

My ARB:

ARB from EBV:

Ed,
...Coincidentally I was just shooting PICs of baby BRBs and found that my new camera takes much better macro shots than the old one. I just shot these PICs and I will see about shooting closeups of ARB heads.
Jeff

>>I recently asked for some headshots of BRB's with the intent of trying to see if there might be some scalation difference between BRB's and ARB's. I haven't been able to count scales on my ARB yet, my photography skills and/or my camera aren't good enough yet. Anyway, one casual observation is that Brazilians (and Colombians and Peruvians) seem to have a pretty obvious difference in head pattern when compared with ARB's. (This is not a peer reviewed scientific study, just some anecdotal information from someone who had a few minutes to kill while at work today. I only had about half a dozen pics of ARB's that I could find.) But for what it's worth, the BRB/CRB/PRB's virtually all had a set of 5 parallel lines on their heads. The lines immediately next to the center line (on the top of the head) on either side touch the top of the each eye. (See first two pics) All the ARB samples I found had the lines broken up, and the lines that on the BRB's touch the eyes do not do so on the ARB's. Those lines curve up towards the center of the head *above* the scale that borders the top of the eye. What does this mean? I have no clue, just thought it was interesting.
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>>Have any BRB breeders ever seen a BRB with a head pattern similar to the ARB's posted below?
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>>Jeff, do you happen to have any heads shots of your assisi or other uncommon subspecies?
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>>Thanks again for the head shots Aubrey and Speerbeer.
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>>BRB Posted by Speerbeer:
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>>BRB Posted by Aubrey:
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>>My ARB:
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>>ARB from EBV:
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These first two PICs are an adult male Campina Grande Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria asissi. This snake has a scar on the forward top of his head that is similar to the scar that is commonly seen on Colombian Rainbow Boas.

These next two PICs are a large adult female Isla Marajo Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria barbouri.

These next two PICs are a three year old female Peruvian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria gaigei.

These next five are an adult female Argentinian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria alvarezi. This snake is the mother of Ed's ARB.

This next one is an adult male alvarezi. He has a discolored area around his right nare. This snake is the father of Ed's ARB.

Jeff,

Very interesting, thanks so much for the pictures. Regarding scalation, I didn't really look too closely, but there does seem to be some variation (even between snakes of the same sub species!) in the scalation between the eye and the nostril. But as good as all the pictures have been, it's still hard to tell without having several particular angles for each specimen! Maybe I'll mark up a picture pointing to what I think I see.

I just looked at some more CRB and GRB photos. Regarding the head pattern, so far it seems that the ARB's head pattern is very distinct from the other subspecies. Only the ARB seems to have that "upper eye line" (sorry, I'm not up on my anatomical vernacular) that deviates upward away from the scale adjacent to the eye. Also the broken line/pattern on the top of the head seems pretty unique to the ARB.

I'm too tired to speculate on this, so I will say good night at this point.

Thanks!
Ed

P.S. Maybe we should push for ARB to be its own species, and we can name it Epicrates rainbowboaforumii.

>>These first two PICs are an adult male Campina Grande Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria asissi. This snake has a scar on the forward top of his head that is similar to the scar that is commonly seen on Colombian Rainbow Boas.
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>>These next two PICs are a large adult female Isla Marajo Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria barbouri.
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>>These next two PICs are a three year old female Peruvian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria gaigei.
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>>These next five are an adult female Argentinian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria alvarezi. This snake is the mother of Ed's ARB.
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>>This next one is an adult male alvarezi. He has a discolored area around his right nare. This snake is the father of Ed's ARB.
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Not that I have many BRB's to show, but found my male had interesting head pattern...haven't seen many pics of BRB's with this.

Mostly noticed the broken stripes running from each eye and central
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PHLdyPayne

I've probably looked at 75 to 100 pics of different BRB's over the last few days, only saw a broken stripe (any of the head stripes) on maybe 2 or 3.

Thanks for sharing,
Ed

>>Not that I have many BRB's to show, but found my male had interesting head pattern...haven't seen many pics of BRB's with this.
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>>Mostly noticed the broken stripes running from each eye and central
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>>PHLdyPayne

Of all of my BRBs, I'm pretty sure this is the only one with a broken head stripe.

Unfortunately I don't have a nice close-up shot of the top of her head, but I think you can still see it. I haven't seen many like this either.
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

She seems to have an aberrant/broken pattern in the saddles on her back too - I wonder if that's something she'd pass to her offspring or just a random difference from the norm.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

I know this is about as exciting as watching grass grow, but it looks like there could be some head scalation differences
between ARB's and the other subspecies. The five or so ARB's for which I could get close up head pictures all show that they have some small scales around the nostril scale that BRB's may not have. The scale with the green mark ( let's call it "Scale X" ) does not touch (or barely touches) the nostril scale due to the existence and/or placement of the small scales in between it and the nostril scale. (Mendoza seems to be asymmetrical, so this adds more confusion!) If anyone is actually interested in this, I posted some pics to try to show what I'm not explaining very well....

Mendoza's Right side....

Left side has one more (very small) scale in the group that surrounds "Scale X"...

Jeff's ARB's show similar scalation. Jeff, are Mom and Dad unrelated?

The EBV ARB specimen also shows this type of scalation.

For BRB's (and a few other subspecies), "Scale X" appears to be significantly longer, and it and the nostril scale don't seem to be separated by the little scales present in ARB's. Here are some pics...

Jeff's Isla Marajo...

Aubrey's BRB "Russet"

Aubrey's BRB "Flax"

Aburey's BRB "Sable"

Aburey's BRB "Copper"

Jeff's E. c. assisi...

Man you've got some good eyes! Definetley seems to be a pattern there.

Is there not a scale chart for Rainbow Boas anywhere? I've seen charts for various colubrids.
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

I would think someone made a chart at some point, but I have no
clue where to find it. It would be nice to see some research based on wild caught specimens that are surely unrelated.

Sorry for misspelling your name, it was a cut-paste error. There is no "Aburey" that participates in this forum!

Thanks,
Ed

>>Man you've got some good eyes! Definetley seems to be a pattern there.
>>
>>Is there not a scale chart for Rainbow Boas anywhere? I've seen charts for various colubrids.
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>>Aubrey Ross
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>>©
>>www.SlipstreamSerpents.com