DHL,
Another genetic study of the Rubber Boa has been proposed in which both molecular and nuclear tests would be incorporated. Whether or not that study gets beyond the talking stage is not known but at this point in time, Dr. Chris Feldman would likely be the lead investigator.

Despite new findings that emerged from the recent mtDNA study completed by grad student Richard Toshima, there remains a fair number of gaps in information relating to various populations of the species.

For instance you ask about the boa populations between the populations that occur in San Bernardino Mts. and the Southern Kern Plateau. At this point in time, there is only one such population that has gone untested and those are the boas that occur in the Scodie Mts. immediately south of the extreme southeastern part of the Kern Plateau. Although surrounded by Mojave Desert type habitat, the Scodie Mts. are connected to the Kern Plateau by Walker Pass at about 5300 ft. A reasoned guess is that those boas would also align with the Southern Clade.

I had once proposed to have that population tested it was bypassed. Then with the discovery that the Kern Plateau population in south of Tulare County aligned with the Southern Clade, Rick no longer had a lab in which he could test tissue from the Scodie specimen. All other known populations that occur between the San Bernardino Mts. and Kern Plateau
have been tested and align with the Northern Clade (Sierra Nevada subclade)

Those populations include boas that occur in the Piute Mts. about 12 miles west of the Scodie Mts. and again separated by the Mojave Desert. Only one sample from the Piute Mts. was tested by Rodriguez-Robles and repeated in the current study. I have another sample of tissue from a boa from the Piutes that wasn't tested. And just west of the Piute Mts. is Breckenridge Mt. and south of the Piutes are the Tehachapi Mts. The boas from Mt. Pinos boas to the southwest of the Tehachapi Mts. on the west side of the I-5 corridor and Frazier Park, Calif. were also tested. I have additional samples from all of those regions.

As for the 38 samples that had identical haplotypes, that certainly is of interest which from my limited understanding of mtDNA research would seem to suggesting a rapid dispersal by a successful general phenotype.

Richard F. Hoyer

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