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I was wondering.

Are sarawaks different enough from borneos to be considered a sub species?

Borneo short-tails (Python curtus breitensteini breitensteini)
Sarawak short-tails (Python curtus breitensteini sub-species)

Any thoughts?
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"From my rotting body flowers shall grow, and i them - and that is eternity."

The Sarawak locality differs only slightly genetically from other Python breitensteini based on the testing done so far (Per Dave Barker in reference to testing by J. Scott Keogh).

I have three sarawaks (1.2) each originating from separate founders. When I compare them to my other borneos, the scalation appears to be different as well as slight body shape differences (being more robust). In my opinion, the coloration and pattern are different than most borneos seen today. I do have a male borneo of unknown origin that has similar coloration, but not a sarawak locality.

The photo shown is all three examples of borneos in my collection. The brightest variant originated from VPI (female), the dark walnut colored being the dark borneo mentioned above (male) and the center dark golden sarawak (female).

More work needs to be done to reclassify and this I will leave to the taxonomists who know more latin than I. Aside from that, I think the sarawaks are a joy to work with as they tend to have different personalities than my other short-tails. Another note, they also seem to handle and prefer cooler temperatures than my other short-tails.

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The difference I noticed is in the texture or feel of the scales. I took close up photos and as you can see there are subtle differences between the shapes. The typical borneo has a diamond shape or even square if you look at it at the proper angle. The Sarawak's scales from the same relative body location are more rounded reminiscent of burmese python scales. I am posting the sarawak scales separately since I have not figured the multiple image thing yet.

sarawak scales

The difference in the scale morphology is quite apparent. Thanks for the photos.

Kelly

NO....... just a local thing like texa bull /colorado bull just my opinion
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Kevin
I am lost w/o spell check
"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."-unknown

Hello. Just browsing through and noticed that you use the names Sarawak and Borneo like they're different locales. Actually, Sarawak is a PART of Borneo. Borneo Island is shared by Sabah & Sarawak (Malaysia), Brunei (Brunei) and Kalimantan (Indonesia).

So to say something is 'from Sarawak, not Borneo' is like saying 'from California, not West Coast'. Just my 2 cents. Sorry about the intrusion.

the Los Angeles County area (and named as such), and not in any of the other California counties. I don't believe anyone would think you were insinuating that the species wasn't also found in the State of California. Just a comment.

Kelly