Common name: eyelash boas

Trachyboa is a traditional genus of nonvenomous dwarf boas endemic to Central and South America. They are largely terrestrial, fish-eating snakes that inhabit tropical lowlands. Two species have been recognized, although they are now placed in genus Tropidophis by some authorities.

Distribution and habitat

Species of Trachyboa are found in Central and South America in Panama, Pacific Colombia, and Ecuador.

Species

SpeciesTaxon authorCommon nameGeographic range
Trachyboa boulengeriPeracca, 1910northern eyelash boaFrom Panama in the Chocó region through Pacific Colombia to Ecuador.
Trachyboa gularisTW. Peters, 1860Ecuadorian eyelash boaEcuador in the dry regions along the coast.

T) Type species.

Taxonomy

While Trachyboa and Tropidophis dwarf boas have been traditionally considered sister taxa, a phylogenetic analysis of Tropidophiidae species found the Trachyboa nested within the Tropidophis species and it was proposed to include all species in Tropidophis.

Further reading

  • Boulenger GA (1893). Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families ... Boidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (Genus Trachyboa, p.109).
  • Freiberg M (1982). Snakes of South America. Hong Kong: T.F.H. Publications. 189 pp. ISBN0-87666-912-7. (Genus Trachyboa, p.88).
  • Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR (1978). Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. xi + 378 pp. ISBN0-7167-0020-4. (Genus Trachyboa, p.320).
  • Peters W (1860). "Eine neue Gattung von Riesenschlangen vor, welche von einem gebornen Preussen, Hrn. Carl Reiss, in Guayaquil nebst mehreren andern werthvollen Naturalien dem zoologischen Museum zugesandt worden ist ". Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1860: 200-202. (Trachyboa, new genus, p.200). (in German).

External links

  • at the. Accessed 29 August 2007.