Encyclopedia of Snake

Family Boidae

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Order Squamata
Suborder Serpentes (Ophidia)
Infraorder Henophidia (Boidea)

Family Boidae

Morelia viridis.

Appearance: Relatively large, stout snakes.

Distribution: Most boines occur in the Neotropics although some species occur on Madagascar and in the southwest Pacific. Pythons occur in Africa, Australia and Asia whereas Sand boas inhabit sandy or rocky deserts from East Africa through India including southern Europe (Lichanura is an exception, see above).

Habitat: Boas and pythons inhabit a wide range of habitats from deserts to rain forests and even occur in the temperate coniferous forests of the Northwestern United States (Lichanura = Charina).

Size: This family includes the giants among the snakes although some boids may remain quite small (e.g. Eryx, Exiliboa, Charina are less than 1 m). Anacondas (Eunectes) and one python species (Python reticulatus) may reach 10 meters.

Food: Mainly mammals, Birds and other vertebrates.

Behaviour: Some boids (e.g. Corallus) and many pythons have temperature-sensitive pits in their upper or lower labial scales which are used to detect their warm-blooded prey.

Reproduction: Whereas boas and sand boas are viviparous, pythons usually lay eggs (up to a 100 in some large species). In fact, many pythons build nests or lay their eggs in burrows. Females of these species even incubate their eggs by coiling around the clutches and generating heat by muscular contractions.

Note: The pythons are often considered as a separate family (Pythonidae).

Family Loxocemidae

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Order Squamata
Infraorder Henophidia (Boidea)

Family Loxocemidae

Only one species: Loxocemus bicolor.

Appearance: The young appear to be dark brown with an iridescent sheen (reminiscent of baby slow worms) and no white markings. Fleckings usually cover just a scale or two at a time are some form of cryptic camouflage, designed to break up the snake's outline in the shadowy habitat it occupies in the wild.

Size: Max. 1.57 m total length (A. Solorzano, pers. comm.).

Distribution: Central America (Southern Mexico to Costa Rica).

Habitat: semi-fossorial terrestrial.

Food: small mammals and reptiles, turtle and lizard eggs.

Reproduction: oviparous (2-4 eggs per clutch)

Behavior: no information available.

Relationships: Previous authors put the species into the subfamily Loxoceminae of the family Boidae.

Family Uropeltidae (Shield-tail Snakes)

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Order Squamata
Suborder Serpentes (Ophidia) - snakes
Infraorder Henophidia (Boidea)

Family Uropeltidae (Shield-tail Snakes)

Appearance: Uropeltids have no hindlimb vestiges and no eye-covering spectacles. Their name "shield-tailed snakes" is derived from the greek words ura = tail and pelte = shield, indicating the presence of a large keratinous shield at the tip of their tail.

Distribution: Southern India and Sri Lanka.

Habitat: Soil. Uropeltids are burrowing snakes and their anatomy is highly adapted to that lifestyle.

Relationships: Previously, the mainly Indonesian genera Anomochilus and Cylindrophis have been assigned to the subfamily Cylindrophiinae of the family Uropeltidae. Recently they have been assigned family status (Cundall et al. 1993).

Family Cylindrophiidae (Asian Pipe Snakes)

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Order Squamata
Superfamily Xenophidia (Colubroidea Caenophidia)

Family Cylindrophiidae (Asian Pipe Snakes)

This familiy contains only about 10 species.

Appearance: Asian pipesnakes (genus Cylindrophis) are shiny, stout, blunt-headed and short-tailed burrowers. All Asian pipesnkes have black-and-white checkered bellies.

Size: less than 1 m in length

Distribution: from Sri Lanka through the malayian peninsula to Indonesia.

Relationships: Previously, the genus Cylindrophis has been assigned to the subfamily Cylindrophiinae of the family Uropeltidae.

Family Anomochilidae (Dwarf Pipe Snakes)

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Order Squamata
Superfamily Xenophidia (Colubroidea Caenophidia)

Family Anomochilidae (Dwarf Pipe Snakes)

Only two species, Anomochilus leonardi and A. weberi. There is hardly anything known about theses species - only 9 specimens of both species combined have been found!

Appearance: Anatomically they are intermediate between the blind snakes (Scolecophidia) and the more "modern" snakes. Superficially they resemble Asian pipesnakes (Cylindrophiidae). Anomochilids lack both a chin groove and teeth on their pterygoid or palatine bones.

Distribution: restricted to the malayian peninsula and Indonesia

Relationships: Previously, the genus Anomochilus has been assigned to the subfamily Cylindrophiinae of the family Uropeltidae.

Family Acrochordidae (Wart Snakes)

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Order Squamata
Infraorder Caenophidia (Colubroidea)

Family Acrochordidae (Wart Snakes)

Only 3 species belong to this family.

Wart Snake (Acrochordus granulatus)

Appearance: Heavy-bodied snakes with skin lying loose in folds. Scales small, granular and non-overlapping, giving a rugose texture with the interstitial skin forming bristle-tipped tubercles. Adapted to aquatic lifestyle by dorsally-shifted eyes, valvular nostrils, and a flap for closing the lingual opening of the mouth. Acrochordus granulatus has a laterally compressed tail and lingual salt glands.

Size: 60-180 cm snout-vent length.

Distribution: Indo-Australian region

Habitat: Aquatic; estuarine-marine (Acrochordus granulatus) or living in freshwater (A. arafurae, A. javanicus).

Food: mainly fish.

Reproduction: Ovoviviparous with litters ranging from 2 to 32 neonates (A. javanicus). Clutch size is correlated with body size. Acrochordus granulatus: 4-8 neonates.

Behavior: Slowly moving and swimming animals which often remain under water for a considerable time. On land they can move only clumsily

Taxonomy: The systematic status of the Acrochordidae has been unclear for many years: some authors placed them within the colubrids (as a subfamily), others such as UNDERWOOD (1967) placed them within the Henophidia. More recent authors placed the acrochordids within the caenophidian radiation (GROOMBRIDGE 1984, RIEPPEL 1988).