Hello, I just picked up this adult Boa recently from someone who couldn’t care for it any longer. They could not remember if it was listed with any specific morphs when they purchased and just curious what this community thought as it seems very dark but not 100% myself on identifying morphs on this one
4 Likes
Looks like a motley, possibly IMG. Not great with morphs but might be aztec. @tommccarthy @lumpy @smite @eorr53 sorry for the other boa experts, my chemo brain has a hard time with the screen names
6 Likes
I was thinking the same for Motley IMG
4 Likes
I agree with Dennis.
It’s a motley, possibly IMG. I am not great with IMG morphs. Most adult IMG motley are almost solid black. I do see were it kind of looks like aztec too. I also think it could be a Central American motley not a Colombian motley.
The only way to know for sure is to find out who produced it and ask them what the parents were.
2 Likes
Could be motley. But I’m thinking it looks possibly Inca instead. To me, Inca looks like a cross between Motley and Aztec; the pattern here is more blocky than a typical Motley, but less intricate than a typical Aztec. So I’m going with Inca as my guess for the pattern morph. But it could very well be Motley.
I’m iffy on whether or not this boa has IMG. It is quite dark, but not nearly as black as I’d expect for an IMG with another darkening morph like Motley or Inca. I’d especially expect the sides to be darker and blacker if IMG was present. This snake also does not appear to have the head spear marking normally seen on IMGs, though the pattern morph could play a role with that. I’m leaning towards this snake NOT being IMG, but if it is, it’s a pretty low expression of IMG.
Just my 2 cents.
3 Likes
I did not think about Inca. 
You could be right on this guess. Good call jawramik.
3 Likes
Looks IMG to me, my first thought was motley (sides look mot to me) as well but not 100% on that. Could be another pattern mutation, tail picture might help.
2 Likes
I think I’m actually amending my guess on the pattern back to Motley. 
I agree with @smite that the pattern on the sides looks Motley, so I went and looked at some Incas to refresh my memory about their side pattern and…Incas have a different side pattern, so I think OP’s boa is Motley after all. Sides look way more Motley than Inca.
But the more I look at the pictures, the more I feel the need to be a contrarian and say this boa is not IMG. I totally understand why people are saying it is, just because it’s such a dark boa overall, but it’s not really dark in the right ways and places to be IMG to my eyes. If it had IMG, I’d expect to see a lot less pattern and contrast, especially on the back half and sides of the snake. This snake keeps its pattern and contrast all down its body and sides from what I can see. That’s not what I’d expect to see with IMG, especially on an adult animal where the effects of the IMG should be in full swing. I think this may just be a really beautifully dark Motley.
It’s a beautiful boa, whatever it is!
1 Like
Motley IMGS are supposed to get very black. I wonder if its maybe a CA motley? I’ve seen some dark CA mots before. The spots around the head still make me wonder if its IMG, but then again I feel like IMG fills in the sides first and most, which is almost the opposite of what this animals has? Tough to know, but I agree beautiful boa. Hopefully someone with more IMG experience can chime in.
2 Likes
Yeah, all that intense black speckling on the head initially had me thinking potentially IMG too, but I’ve seen non-IMG boas with that sort of stippling on them. Even if this were a very low expression IMG, I’d expect to see more black on the sides, especially near the tail.
But I could be wrong, I’m definitely not an expert. I’m just an IMG enthusiast whose looked at a lot of pictures lol. There’s probably also plenty of other genes/polygenic stuff floating around in the boa population that increase production of melanin in ways other than the IMG morph that’s been identified.
2 Likes