Rubber boa (Charina bobttae) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 3

Species Information

Name and classification

The Rubber Boa, Charina bottae, is the only member of the family Boidae in Canada, and one of only two boids found north of the tropics (the other is the Rosy Boa, Lichanura trivirgata). The genus name, Charina, means ‘graceful’ in the Greek language, while the specific epithet, bottae, is named after a 19th century Italian explorer, Paolo Emilio Botta, who first described the Rubber Boa in his book “Observations on the Inhabitants of California” (Hoyer 2001). The Rubber Boa was originally classified as 3 separate genera due to the variability of specimens collected throughout its range; however, recent morphological and genetic evidence indicate that the Rubber Boa belongs to a monotypic genus and has two subspecies, C.b. bottae (the Northern Rubber Boa) and C.b. umbricata (the Southern Rubber Boa) (Nussbaum and Hoyer 1974; Rodriguez-Robles et al. 2001). Only C.b. bottae is found in Canada.

Description

The Rubber Boa is a small snake, reaching a maximum length of 75 cm (Cook 1984). It is a reddish-brown to yellow-brown on the dorsal side and yellowish on the belly, with no blotches or stripes although there may be dark flecks along the sides (Cook 1984). This boa has a wrinkled appearance, and the wrinkling combined with smooth, small dorsal scales gives the species a rubbery appearance (Stewart 1977). The tail is short and blunt, giving the appearance of another head, and hardened for use as a defensive weapon by the fusion of the terminal vertebrae (Hoyer and Stewart 2000b). Sexual dimorphism is present in adult Rubber Boas, with females attaining on average a 20% greater length and 96% greater mass than males (Hoyer and Stewart 2000a).

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