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The
Corallus hortulanus - complex:
The
revision of this complex is a bit older than some of the other revisions
we have described, but we feel that it has quite some relevance,
while a lot of Tree Boas still are treated as Corallus enydris
or Corallus hortulanus without differentiating between
the seperat species.
In
1996 (McDiarmid et al.) the species known by many as Corallus
enydris (Linnaeus, 1758) was determined again to be a junior
synonym of Corallus hortulanus (Linnaeus, 1758). The two
species was described as Boa Enydris and Boa Hortulana
in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae on respectively page 215
and 215-216. As the original describtion of both species was quit
similar and without any significant differences to tell the species
apart, the first revision of the species as Corallus hortulanus
with Corallus enydris as a synonym by Duméril
and Bibron in 1844 is to be used as the designation of the senior
synonym.
The
species Corallus hortulanus (or Corallus enydris as
it was mainly called) was generally split into the two subspecies
hortulanus (or enydris) and cookii.
Then
in 1997 the major worker on this complex without a doubt, Robert
W. Henderson, who has worked with these species for nearly to decades,
published a taxonomic review of the hortulanus Complex, based
on analyses of morphological characters and mtDNA (Henderson &
Hedges, 1995) from over 600 specimens from the entire range of the
complex. The result of this review was that the complex had to be
split into the four species Corallus hortulanus (Linnaeus,
1758) , cooki Gray, 1842, grenadensis (Barbour, 1914)
and ruschenbergerii.(Cope, 1876).
The
data usefull for separating the species are seen in the following
scheme based on data taken directly from Henderson (1997):
|
Morphology/species
|
hortulanus
|
cooki
|
grenadensis
|
ruschenbergerii
|
| Dorsal
scale rows |
47-63
|
39-48
|
37-46
|
38-48
|
| Ventrals |
258-297
|
257-278
|
257-278
|
250-272
|
| Subcaudals |
105-137
|
100-122
|
100-119
|
94-115
|
| Scales
between supraoculars |
5-14
|
7-13
|
3-9
|
3-10
|
| Infraloreals |
0-9
|
0-4
|
0-4
|
0-6
|
| Circumorbital
scales |
8-17
|
10-14
|
8-14
|
11-16
|
| Dorsal
ground color |
Variable
(yellow, gray, taupe, brown, pind, or reddish)
|
Always
taupe, groay, or brown
|
Variable
(yellowish, orange, gray, taupe, brown)
|
Yellow
brown to deep copper brown
|
| Distribution |
Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname
and Venezuela |
St.
Vincent |
Baliceaux,
Bequia, Canouan, Carriacou, Grenada, Ile Quatre, Mayreau, Mustique,
Petit Martinique and Uniion Island |
Colombia,
Costa Rica, Panama, Tobago, Trinidad, Venezuela |
This
new taxonomy of course gives some problems for hobbyists and scientists
used to the old definition of the complex as a species with two
subspecies. The old taxonomy for the complex had the nominatform
living in the same area as is now the case for Corallus hortulanus.
The subspecies cooki on the other hand has with this new
taxonomy been split into three seperat species, which is the cause
of confussion. What we used to call Corallus enydris cooki or
C. hortulanus cooki could now be three different species.
And probably the all belong to the nominat species, as both cooki
and grenadensis has rather limited distributions and
most of the contries in the range of C. ruschenbergeri are
no large exporters of wildlife.
Literature:
- Henderson,
R.W. 1997. A Taxonomic Review of the Corallus hortulanus Complex
of Neotropical Tree Boas. Carib. J. Sci., 33(3/4): 198-221.
- Henderson,
R.W. & S.B. Hedges. 1995. Origin of West Indian Populations
of the Geographically Widespread Boa Corallus enydris Inferred
from Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Molec. Phylogen. Evol., 4: 88-92.
- McDiarmid,
R.W., T. Touré & J.M. Savage. 1996. The Proper Name
of the Neotropical Tree Boa Often Referred to as Corallus enydris
(Serpentes: Boidae). J. Herpetol., 30(3): 320-326.
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