Was there a new boa discovered in the Philippines in the 1880s?

Is the “new species” of a boa serpent found in the Philippines and featured in the 22 February 1882 issue of the weekly paper La Ilustración española y americana of Madrid still existing?

Was it really a Philippine species?

Jose Domingo Seoane, a captain in the Spanish Navy, was said to have captured the ‘colossal ophidian’ much earlier (‘some time ago,’ probably in 1881) in ‘Mindanao, around Ilo-ilo,’ according to the short article.

The illustration of Piesigaster boettgeri from La Ilustracion.
(Source: Biblioteca National de Espana)

He probably gave a live specimen to his brother, Victor Lopez Seoane, a naturalist, who described it in his pamphlet Neue Boidengattung und Art, von den Philippinen (Frankfurt, 1881) as ‘somewhat compressed body, twice higher than wide; prehensile tail; bent teeth, and intermaxillary bone without teeth; between the scales; vertical pupil; fine general scales and lanceolate [tapered oval].’ He also measured the total length from the mouth to the anale simplex (more than a meter), the tail, the length and width of the tail. And the dominant body color, he wrote, was grayish-white, approaching yellow.

The boa, according to the story, ‘dwells in basements, in dark places, and rarely comes out of its burrows during the day, always waiting for the night to find food, which consists of small reptiles, birds, rats, and even larger animals, for the specimen which Seoane found had a chicken in its stomach.’ It presupposed that the serpent was already fully developed, thus, nothing longer than that could probably be found.

The reporter was ecstatic because the discovery was ‘an interesting event to the scientific academies of Berlin, London and Paris, all the more so since only snakes of the Pithonidae family of the two genera of Boides are known in the [Philippine] archipelago and in southern Asia.’

In his monograph on ‘The Snakes of the Philippine Islands (1922), Edward H. Taylor included Victor Lopez Zoane’s paper in the bibliography (p 30):  Neue Boidengattung und Art von den Philippinen. Abh. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1881) 12. … Describes a new genus Piesigaster with the species Piesigaster boettgeri from "der Provinz Iloilo und Pollock auf der Insel Mindanao," supposedly captured there by a brother of the author, a ship's captain of the Royal Spanish Marine. The specimen is Epicrates inornatus Reinhardt from the West Indies.’

However, Taylor included this specie as one of those erroneously attributed to the Philippine Islands: “Piesigaster boettgeri Seaone (= Epicrates inornatus Reinhardt). .
This species was originally described from Panay through a wrongly labeled specimen. It is confined to the West Indies.”

In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the species with the taxon name Chilabothrus inornatus (Reinhardt, 1843) is synonymous with Boa inornata Reinhardt, 1843; Boella tenella Smith & Chiszar, 1992; Epicrates inornatus (Reinhardt, 1843); and Piesigaster boettgeri Seone, 1881.

Its common names are: Puerto Rican Boa and Yellow Tree Boa (English); Boa de Porto Rico and Boa sobre (French); and Boa de Puerto Rico (Spanish).

In 2009, it was assessed as ‘Least Concern due to its large distribution and ability to inhabit altered environments. Population numbers have declined in the past but this boa is still abundant in protected and inaccessible areas.’ This species is widely distributed in Puerto Rico, a native of that country.

Perhaps, the Spanish Navy captain picked up the boa in Puerto Rico, one of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, during one of his ship calls there, and gave the specimen to his brother, the naturalist.

References.:

Author Unknown. 1882, Feb 22. Historia Natural. La Ilustracion española y americana. 26:7(115, 125). Madrid. http://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/issue.vm?id=0001111476

Taylor, Edward H. 1922. The Snakes of the Philippine Islands. Manila: Bureau of Printing. Available from the Cornell University Library at https://archive.org/details/cu31924001803299.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Chilabothrus inornatus – published in 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS.T7821A12853042.en