THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Boidae  

Boa Constrictor
Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758

Current SSAR Comments:
Native to South America from Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago, south and east to central Argentina, central Paraguay, and southern Brazil. It was introduced to 13 states and is established in Florida and Puerto Rico (López-González, 1991, Estudio prospectivo de los vertebrados terrestres del corredor turístico Cancún-Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico; Dalrymple, 1994, Pages 72–86 in D. C. Schmitz and T. C. Brown. (Editors). An assessment of invasive non-indigenous species in Florida's public land. Technical Report No. TSs-94–100. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, Florida; Martínez-Morales and Cuaron, 1999, Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 957–963; Snow et al., 2007, Introduced Populations of Boa constrictor (Boidae) and Python molurus bivittatus (Pythonidae) in Southern Florida. Pp. 417–438 in Henderson and Powell (Editors). The Biology of Boas and Pythons. Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah; Reynolds et al., 2014, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 71: 201–213). Range-wide molecular data (Hynková et al., 2009, Zoological Science 26: 623–631; Reynolds et al., 2014, op. cit.; Suarez-Atilano et al., 2014, Journal of Biogeography 41: 2371–2384; Card et al., 2016, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 102(2016): 104–116; K. L. Krysko, personal communication) illustrate that this is a species complex and suggest the taxonomic recognition and distribution of three species: South American Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor) from Argentina northward to Colombia and Venezuela in South America, Central American Boa Constrictor (Boa imperator) on the western side of the Andes Mountains from Colombia in South America northward through central America to Yucatán in southeastern Mexico of North America, and Mexican West Coast Boa Constrictor (Boa sigma) from the Pacific coast of Mexico eastward to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in North America. The introduced population in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, was represented by a single haplotype corresponding to B. c. constrictor from South America (Reynolds et al., 2013, op. cit.). Although boas have been introduced throughout Florida, it is known to be established only at the Charles Deering Estate in Miami, Miami-Dade County, since at least the 1970s (Dalrymple, 1994, op. cit.; Snow et al., 2007, op. cit.; Smith et al., 2019, Boa constrictor. Pages 452–454 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; Meshaka, et al., 2022, Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida). The established population at the Charles Deering Estate consist of multiple and divergent haplotypes most closely related to samples from the native range of Peru and Guyana, hence they are recognized as B. constrictor. The established population in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, shares the same haplotype with boas from multiple introduced areas in Miami-Dade County, Florida, including The Charles Deering Estate, Homestead, and The Everglades along US 41 in western Miami (K. L. Krysko, personal communication).

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.03.21.15.55.01)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.61 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor: Griffith, Edward and Edward Pidgeon. 1831. The class reptilia arranged by the Baron Cuvier, with specific descriptions. Part 2. Whittaker, Treacher, and Company, London. 1-481pp.); Boiguacu (Boa constrictor: Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1859. Descriptive catalogue of the specimens of natural history in spirit contained in the Museum of the Royal college of surgeons of England. Vertebrata: Pisces, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, London, England. pp.); Boa constrictor (Boa Constrictor: Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1859. Descriptive catalogue of the specimens of natural history in spirit contained in the Museum of the Royal college of surgeons of England. Vertebrata: Pisces, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, London, England. pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Pertinent LIterature:
1758 Linné, Carl von (=Linneaus). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. [System of Nature through the three kingdoms of nature, according to classes, orders, genera, species with characters, differences, synonyms, places.] 10th Edition, Volume 1, L. Salvius, Stockholm. iv + 826pp.
1991 López-González, Carlos Alberto. Estudio prospectivo de los vertebrados terrestres del corredor turístico Cancún-Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. [Prospective study of terrestrial vertebrates in the Cancún-Tulum tourist corridor, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Bachelor's Thesis, National Autonomous University of Mexico.] Thesis. Tlalnepantla, Estado de Mexico. 127pp.
1994 Dalrymple, George H. Non-indigenous amphibians and reptiles. Pages 67–78 in An assessment of invasive non-indigenous species in Florida's public land. Technical Report No. TSS-94-100. 78 pp. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, Florida. pp.
1999 Martínez-Morales, M. A. and Cuarón, A. D. Boa constrictor, an introduced predator threatening the endemic fauna on Cozumel Island, Mexico. Biodiversity and Conservation 8(7):957-963
2007 Henderson, Robert W. and Robert Powell. Biology of Boas and Pythons. Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah.. pp.
2009 Hynková, Ivana, Zuzana Starostová, and Daniel Frynta Mitochondrial DNA variation reveals recent evolutionary history of main Boa constrictor clades. Zoological Science 26(9):623–631
2014 Suárez-Atilano, Marco, Frank Burbrink, and Ella Vázquez-Domínguez. Phylogeographical structure within Boa constrictor imperator across the lowlands and mountains of Central America and Mexico Journal of Biogeography 41(12):2371-2384
2014 Reynolds, R. Graham, Matthew L. Niemiller, and Liam J. Revell. Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 71(2014):201-213
2016 Card, Daren C., Drew R. Schield, Richard H. Adams, Andrew B. Corbin, Blair W. Perry, Audra L. Andrew, Giulia I.M. Pasquesi, Eric N. Smith, Tereza Jezkova, Scott M. Boback, Warren Booth, and Todd A. Castoe. Phylogeographic and population genetic analyses reveal multiple species of Boa and independent origins of insular dwarfism. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 102(2016):104–116
2019 Krysko, Kenneth L., Kevin M. Enge, and Paul E. Moler (Editor) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 728pp.
2022 Meshaka, Walter E. Jr., R. Bruce Bury, Suzanne L. Collins, and Malcolm L. McCallum. Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 245pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 04 February 2025 22:02 CT