Taxonomy & Species Accounts :: Ecology :: Biology :: Captive Care & Breeding :: Misc topics
Links :: CV :: Home
|
Taxonomy
& Species Accounts |
| First
description Genus Leiopython Taxonomic history L. albertisii Mussau Is. Population Emirau Is. Population L. hoserae L. bennettorum L. fredparkeri L. huonensis L. biakensis |
|
Mussau Island Population |
|
|
Between 1961-1962, the Noona Dan Expedition (Denmark, Europe) collected two specimens (ZMUC R5444 - R5445, female and male) of Leiopython albertisii Peters and Doria 1878 at Boliu on the remote Mussau Island in the St. Matthias Island Group, Bismarck Achipelago, PNG. This island is about 400 miles away from mainland New Guinea. McDowell (1975) was the first to describe these specimens. He assumed that this island would have a relict fauna. Furthermore, he stated that the whitish spot behind the eye is absent in both specimens. The latter is contradicted by my examination of the material, at least in the case of the specimen ZMUC R-5445:  Description (ZMUC R-5444) Supralabials 13/13, first two pitted, fifth to seventh entering the orbit with lateral depression at the fifth scale; infralabials 15/16, with 7–12 pitted; loreals 1/1; supraoculars 1/1; postoculars 3/4; one pair of prefrontals; preoculars 1/1 (+ a very small lower one), two pairs of parietals, anterior ones in medial contact but do not meet uppermost postoculars; 3 interparietals; anterior temporals 5/5; posterior temporals: 4/3; 44 midbody scale rows, 267 ventrals, 72 subcaudals.   |
|
|
|
|
| Cited | |
| SCHLEIP, W. D. 2008. Revision of the Genus Leiopython Hubrecht 1879 (Serpentes: Pythonidae) with the Redescription of Taxa Recently Described by Hoser (2000) and the Description of New Species. Journal of Herpetology 42(4):645–667. | |
|
|
© 2001-2009 by Wulf Schleip