Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I am hoping to get some information from you guys on what the differences are between the known Candoia species and sub-species... more specifically the differences between C.b.a. and C.c.c. tree boas. How can you tell the two apart if you aren't sure of their age and origin? I understand that C.c.c. is a smaller animal at maturity, but would a small C. b. australis be distinguishable from C. c. carinata?

Any help, opinions or thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers!

R~

Anyone?

Hey, it kinda sucks when nobody responds So I'll give it a shot.First-the way scientist identify species or new species is by counting scales.This is not easy work.Also I dont know if you have the snakes in question [in-hand]or are just wondering.If you own the snakes,you can use a shed skin and some sort of magnification-or a digital photo you can zoom in on,point being these things hold still.If your just wondering or have one or the other of these snakes start looking them up on the web.The scales to count or pay attention to are on the head especally between the nose and eye,the upper lip,around the eye and top of head probably in that order.The easy way would be to post a head-shot picture...well If someone responded. jenni/

"Hey, it kinda sucks when nobody responds So I'll give it a shot.First-the way scientist identify species or new species is by counting scales.This is not easy work.Also I dont know if you have the snakes in question [in-hand]or are just wondering.If you own the snakes,you can use a shed skin and some sort of magnification-or a digital photo you can zoom in on,point being these things hold still.If your just wondering or have one or the other of these snakes start looking them up on the web.The scales to count or pay attention to are on the head especally between the nose and eye,the upper lip,around the eye and top of head probably in that order.The easy way would be to post a head-shot picture...well If someone responded. jenni/"

Hey Jenni,

I was starting to wonder if this room had any traffic, I appreciate your response. I have a female Candoia c. carinata, gorgeous little snakes. Also I am familiar with identification keys for snakes in general, I was just looking for specific info on Candoia. I'd like to compile an informal and unscientific list of ID features to help people distinguish the species (and subspecies) that make up the genus. Info on this has proven pretty elusive for me, with thevexception of a couple sites that give some very basic and vague information. Here's a particularly interesting and helpful article I found online http://www.reptilechannel.com/snakes/snake-species/bevel-nosed.boa.aspx

Do you know the scale count ranges of the various species species? Also, I'm interested in hearing more about the subocular scales. That sounds like a handy I'd feature! Do you have any more details about this?

Thanks again for your response, I look forward to more responses on this interesting topic.

R~

Hey,Thanks for the reptile channel site.I don't own candoia carinata carinata or austrailis.I don't know the scale counts for them.The trouble is alot of these snakes are from different small islands and may have been separated for thousands of years so even scale counts for the same kind of snake may differ some.As well as counts between male and female.I own snakes supposedly from ambon island.They look like a cross between carinata-carinata and paulsoni- tasmai.The experts on these snakes-on this site are/were helenthereef and Jerry Conway,but I havn't seen anything from them lately. jenni/

Search google scholar for Molecular Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Pacific Island Boas (Candoia)

should give you everything you're wanting.