DHL,
The Mt. Pinos population (only one sample tested) aligned with the Northern Clade (Sierra Nevada subclade). No samples have been tested from nearby boa populations also known to occur west of I-5 on Mt. Abel, Alamo Mt., Sawmill Mt., and Frazier Mt.

The other intriguing aspect involved in the taxonomy of Charina bottae is the discovery of a reasonably distinctive dwarf form of the species that occurs throughout S. Calif. This is the project I have been working on for the past 10 years or thereabouts. Populations of the dwarf morph that belong to the Southern Clade occur in the San Bernardino and assumed
to occur in the San Jacinto Mts. although that population has never been studied. I now have reasonable evidence that the boa population on the southern Kern Plateau also are of the dwarf form which has now been identified as belonging to the Southern Clade.

The Northern Clade (Sierra Nevada subclade) contains boa populations that are of the dwarf morph and large morph. It is now my view that somewhere in Tulare and Inyo Counties, there likely are large morph boas that belong to the Southern Clade.

Richard F. Hoyer

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