Chris,.....As you probably know, the problematic name "imperator" has an EXTREMELY large, very generalized range. The more northern forms of imperator(mexicana) can typically have the cross-bar marking on the head, but many Latin American/South American forms do not.

I don't really specialize in boas as I do different forms Lampropeltis, etc... but I do know enough about them to know their taxonomic status can be highly problematic and variable, and without locality data, it can be very tough to get an exact "handle" on some of their geographic lineage.

As to the question if the one I had pictured is an intergrade, well, it's not an imperator from Mexico(mexicana?), and it ain't from the Amazon Basin(true red-tails, i.e. constrictor, or a number of many other ssp.), actually, I don't even have a clue as to where it came from, or who might have bred it, because I traded it from a local pet store for an Andean Milksnake breeder I no longer needed, for the newly born female Boa, because I had a lone Adult Colombian Boa here for years doing absolutely nothing, so I wanted a reasonable mate for him.

All I really know is that she is a more southern form of imperator than the Mexican race, but not a "Boa c.constrictor" per se from Suriname, Guyana, etc..., or any of the other ssp.


best regards, Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

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