Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi from the UK everyone,
I have a number of Rosies and I would like to determine what I actually have by way of subspecies. Having attempted to match them to online photos of the various subspecies and localities I have concluded that I am very confused. Does anyone know where I can get a current scientific key for Lichanura or recommend any good books / field guides that may assist?

I believe Lichanura is in a bit of a mess currently, and there is some confusion about what names stand.

If you'd like some help IDing, post up some pics and I'm sure you'll get some help with it.
Also, check out the locality rosy boa image project, with 700+ images of rosys from all across their range.
http://borderboas.com

Josh
http://borderboas.com

Thing is, rosies vary so much by locality, not just ssp. And there are some areas where they intergrade and possess qualities of two ssp. However, each of the currently recognized ssp has a certain look about them.

Check out www.[url ban] to see examples of many localities.

There exist albinos and hets that are of mixed locality, for example I have seen albino coastal rosies (Limburg strain, from near Temecula, CA) mixed with San Gabriel Mtn rosies to make very pretty het-for-albino rosies. I have seen desertxcoastal locality albinos (Whitewater, CA strain) mixed with "unicolor" coastal rosies to produce an albino with (hopefully) more orange and less white. Bay of LA, Baja CA mixed with Whitewater albinos (those can be pretty or not very). List goes on. So not always easy to know what you have.

Once you see enough locality rosies, you get a feel for what is what, at least reasonably so.
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Mark

uu uu uu localityrosys dot com
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Mark

Hi All,
Thankyou so much for your help. I have been busy with the camera. Here are the ones I am having difficulty with. Apologies if the photos don't appear, this is my first attempt at uploading.
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OK, only the first one appeared... I will post the other 3 seperately...
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Hmmm... That one didn't post at all. Hang on I'm getting there.

Last ones (hopefully)... The first two are my female and the second two are of my male. They are not siblings as far as i know.

Oh for $&**£$&%'s sake... If anyone has any tips on posting multiple images in one post then said tips would be greatly appreciated.

Male...

Very nice looking rosy. Great colors.
I would say, definitely mid-baja.
It looks like the middle orange stripe fades out as it gets towards the tail... That's common with San Matias, and I hear it's also seen with Bay of LA.
Of course, unless you know the actual history of your snakes, they are just mid-baja-lookin boas. Locality can't be known with any certainty without a trustworthy history.
That being said, being in the UK, I know locality matters less that it does for US breeders.
Awesome snakes!

Hi Rozybozo.
I wouldn't say that locality doesn't matter in the UK. It's more a case of locality being almost universally unavailable for the rosies available here. The existing stock was mostly imported long ago and the locality data is long lost, if it ever existed in the first place. To say you have access to a wider range of rosies in the US is an understatement. I would love to see more imported but as most people here tend to specialise in genetically abnormal ball pythons i don't know if demand would be great enough. It certainly would from me though.

Those look like mid bajas, but could be from a few different localities. Nice looking rosys.

Thanks to both of you. What is the latin name for a mid Baja Rosy? What sub-species are they?

The subspecies is mid-baja rosy boa, usually classified as Lichanura trivirgata saslowi.

Those look like Bay of L.A.'s to me.

reako45