Aspidites
{{Short description|Genus of snakes}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Aspidites
| image = Blackheaded_python.jpg
| image_caption = Black-headed python, Aspidites melanocephalus
| taxon = Aspidites
| authority = W. Peters, 1877
| synonyms = * Aspidiotes Krefft, 1864
- Aspidiotus W. Peters, 1876
- Aspidites W. Peters, 1877McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. {{ISBN|1-893777-00-6}} (series). {{ISBN|1-893777-01-4}} (volume).
}}
Aspidites is a genus of pythons endemic to Australia. The name can be translated as "shield bearer" and pertains to the symmetrically shaped head scales. Currently, two species are recognized.{{ITIS |id=209582 |taxon=Aspidites |accessdate=9 September 2007}}
Description
These snakes lack the heat-sensitive pits between the labial scales that most other python species have.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}
The head is slightly wider than the neck, and the eyes are small, with a vertically elliptic pupils.Boulenger GA. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Boidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, Printers.) London. xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I.- XXVIII. (Genus Aspidites, p. 91.)
Distribution and habitat
They are found in Australia except in the south of the country.
Behavior
Both species are nocturnal,Mehrtens JM. 1987. Living Snakes of the World in Color. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. {{ISBN|0-8069-6460-X}}. and terrestrial.Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR. 1978. Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. W.H. Freeman. San Francisco. xi + 378 pp. {{ISBN|0-7167-0020-4}}. (Aspidites, p. 319.)
Reproduction
Oviparous, the females stay with their eggs until they hatch.
Species
| cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;"
!bgcolor="#f0f0f0"|Taxon author |
| A. melanocephalusT
|(Krefft, 1864) |style="width:40%"|Australia in the northern half of the country, excluding the very arid regions. |
| A. ramsayi
|(Macleay, 1882) |Australia in the west and center of the country: from Western Australia through southern Northern Territory and northern South Australia to southern Queensland and northwestern New South Wales. Its range may be discontinuous. |
T) Type species.
Taxonomy
Two new subspecies, A. ramsayi panoptes, the western woma python, and A. r. richardjonesii, the desert woma python, were described by Hoser (2001).{{NRDB species|genus=Aspidites|species=ramsayi|date=9 September|year=2007}} However, these descriptions are questionable, as they do not include proper diagnoses and seem to be based only on distribution.
Wüster W, Bush B, Keogh JS, O'Shea M, Shine R. 2001. Taxonomic contributions in the "amateur" literature: comments on recent descriptions of new genera and species by Raymond Hoser. Litteratura Serpentium 21: 67-91. [http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/FWit/LittSerp.pdf PDF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809042710/http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/FWit/LittSerp.pdf |date=9 August 2007 }} at [http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ Wolfgang Wüster] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925070717/http://biology.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ |date=25 September 2006 }}. Accessed 10 September 2007.
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Krefft G. 1864. Description of Aspidiotes melanocephalus, a New Snake from Port Denison, N.E. Australia. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1864: 20–22. ("Aspidiotes, nov. gen.", p. 20.)
- Peters W. 1877. Über die von S.M.S. Gazelle mitgebrachten Amphibien. Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1876: 528–535, 914. (Aspidiotus melanocephalus, p. 533; and Aspidites, p. 914.)
External links
{{Commons}}
- {{NRDB genus|genus=Aspidites|date=9 September|year=2007}}
{{Pythonidae}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1568114}}
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