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Welcome to Corallus.com - the website dedicated to sharing information on the
eight species of the Corallus genus. This site is neither the first nor last word on Corallus and
their husbandry. As always, any information and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated so if you can contribute,
shoot me an e-mail and make some changes.
Most of the information gathered on these pages are from reading books, scientific journals and with discussions with other herpetologists and herpetoculturists. There are still countless resources that have not been used by me in making this website as it is simply an unsurmountable task. Throughout the pages, you will see citations to journal articles. On most of these, you can click on the citation and it will lead you to the full citation on the reference page. There has been a wealth of knowledge gained from tree boa husbandry in the past decade or so and while success was achieved before the past few years, it has only been recently that this success has become quite widespread. More people are keeping tree boas (successfully) than ever and the ratio of good, healthy tree boas versus sickly, tree boas is increasing. Still, this genus remains somewhat difficult and more sensitive to husbandry deficiencies/errors. Perhaps even more intriguing than the increased knowledge in regards to husbandry are the strides the scientific community has made in regards to tree boa natural history the past ten years or so. This has been largely due to the work of one man, Dr. Robert Henderson at Milwaukee Public Museum and his assistants. The tree boas are located within the Family Boidae (Boas and Pythons). Although this family is small, it is tremendously diverse. It is spread through five continents and representatives of this family are found in the trees, on the ground and underneath the ground. Other representatives spend a large part of their time in or near the water. The Boinae (Boas), a subfamily of the Boidae, is where the Corallus tree boas belong. The boas are a live-bearing group with the greatest distribution located in the New World continents of North and South America. There are representatives of this subfamily in the Pacific Islands and on Madagascar.  Distribution map of the Boine with Corallus distribution in red The genus Corallus are not the only arboreal boas in the Boinae subfamily. Almost all the other Boines are arboreal to a degree with some such as some of the insular Epicrates spending quite a bit of time off the ground. There are even other "tree boas" out there such as the Madagascan tree boa (Sanzinia madagascariensis) and the tree boas found in Indonesia: Candoia bibroni australis (Solomon Islands tree boa) and Candoia carinata carinata (New Guinea tree boa). The Corallus tree boas are a small group of now eight species found throughout Central America and the northern half of South America. They are primarily encountered in wet forests or areas of relatively high humidity but this is not always the case as some species are found in fruit orchards, plantations and savannahs. As their names suggest, Corallus are all arboreal to some degree. They are well equipped with strong prehensile tails and infrared thermal receptors - located in scales along their upper and lower lips. Taxonomically, this group has changed since 1991 and has undergone a dramatic facelift since 1996. Take a look at the changes: As of 1990: Three species in the genus: Corallus annulatus (Annulated Tree Boa), Corallus caninus (Emerald Tree Boa), Corallus enydris (Amazon Tree Boa) In 1991: Kluge resurrects the species Corallus cropanii (Cropan's Boa) grouping Xenoboa cropanii into the genus Corallus In 1996: McDiarmid et al. determine Corallus hortulanus
is the proper name for Corallus enydris. Thus:
In 1997: Henderson splits Corallus hortulanus into four
species:
In 2001: Henderson et al. split and lump Corallus annulatus
:
Thus, the genera that historically contained a mere three species has now been rearranged to form eight species. They are:
Likely, more changes will be made in the future especially concerning the status of the emerald tree boa. This species has a bit of variation but has two likely major genetic branches: the northern shield line and the Amazon basin line. It is quite possible that this species is composed of two or more subspecies or species. Within the genus most consider the Cropan's boa the most basal of the Corallus. For a long time it was placed in its own genus Xenoboa. It's known from three individuals and only found in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Emerald tree boas Corallus caninus are thought to be the sister taxon to the Cropan's boa at the base of the phylogeny tree. Whether or not the emerald tree boa and Cropan's boa are closer than the phylogeny tree indicates is unknown. The two are the most heavy-bodied of the tree boas and are unlike the other tree boas which are more elongated in shape. Further along the group, the branches divide into two major groups: the annulated tree boas and the Amazon tree boa complex. The annulated tree boas have one of the smallest distributional areas of the tree boas but it stretches to cover many latitudes. Disjunct populations are found in two areas of Central America, in Colombia and in Ecuador. Populations from Ecuador are now known as Corallus blombergi while the other two populations have been lumped into Corallus annulatus.  The Amazon tree boa complex comprises the last four species of tree boas. At one time, all these species belonged under the name Corallus hortulanus. Taxonomical and ecological work has helped tease these species apart. The namesake Amazon tree boa Corallus hortulanus has the largest distribution of all the tree boas being found throughout the Amazon rainforest and even into drier areas in SE Brazil. Their variation in color and pattern is probably the most amazing of the reptile world. Moving northward, the Central American or black-tailed tree boa Corallus ruschenbergerii is found in northern South America as well as being the only member of the complex encountered in Central America. Black-tailed tree boas are so named because the tails of some are heavily colored black. The last two species, the Cook's tree boa Corallus cookii and the Grenadian tree boa Corallus grenadensis are insular species found in the South Caribbean. The Cook's tree boa, often mistakenly named so in the herp trade, is found exclusively on the island of St. Vincent and some surrounding islands. St. Vincent is north of the Grenadian Bank where you will encounter the Grenadian tree boa. These islands are close to the northeastern coast of Venezuela. All content on this website © 1998 - 2006 by Paul Huang unless otherwise noted.
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