Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The paper linked below, if I read it right, suggests that Sanzinia madagascariensis now has 2 subspecies. S.m.volotony is the new classification for what has the common name of "Mandarin" phase. S.m.madagascariensis is the subspecies name for the "Green" phase.

This makes more sense to me, having worked with both. If I understood the paper correctly, there may even be enough evidence to divide the two at the species level. This also seems reasonable from just my quick view of the two subspecies.

One nice thing to read from the linked paper is that wild populations are doing well. My own population of S.m.volotony is doing well, with one gravid female this year.

For those of you who already knew this, well sorry to bring it up again. It's just new to me and I really like working with these guys.

Doug T from Doug Taylor Reptiles
Sanzinia/Acrantophis Paper

Volontony, not Volotony

I guess it means "Earth Color".

Doug T

I'm not very "up" on boa taxonomy and I haven't visited this board in months, but what happened to "Boa mandrita?" For some reason I was under the impression that Sanzinia had been reclassified as such. Thanks for the article, by the way. Very interesting.

Thanks,
Ronda

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Ronda Van Winkle
Northwest Herpetoculture

In the past few years Sanzinia madagascariensis became Boa manditra as some taxonomist decided they were so closely related to South American boas and the other Madagascan boas as to be in the same Genus. Then somebody decided to use some modern technology and determined that they all were divergent enough to go back to the old Sanzinia madagascariensis.

It looks like they'll actually divide the boas of Madagascar into 4 species:
Acrantophis dumerili,Acrantophis madagascariensis,
and the 2 Sanzinia madagascariensis subspecies elevated to species level. (My guess is they will be Sanzinia madagascariensis and Sanzinia volontony)

Doug T

>>I'm not very "up" on boa taxonomy and I haven't visited this board in months, but what happened to "Boa mandrita?" For some reason I was under the impression that Sanzinia had been reclassified as such. Thanks for the article, by the way. Very interesting.
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>>Thanks,
>>Ronda
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>>Ronda Van Winkle
>>Northwest Herpetoculture

I own the 2 subspecies though I'm not very experienced with these animals. They look very different and especially the size. The ontogenetic color change in volontany is longer than in madagascariensis and the ground colors are more variable.