Antaresia maculosa (PETERS, 1873)
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Antaresia maculosa
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| Higher Taxa | Pythonidae, Henophidia, Pythonoidea, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | Antaresia maculosa peninsularis ESQUERRÉ et al. 2021 Antaresia maculosa maculosa (PETERS 1873) |
| Common Names | E: Spotted Python, Eastern Small-blotched Python, Eastern Childrens Python G: Gefleckter Zwergpython, Fleckenpython E: Cape York Spotted Python [peninsularis] |
| Synonym | Liasis maculosus PETERS 1873: 608 Antaresia maculosus — KLUGE 1993 Liasis maculosus — SHINE 1994 Antaresia maculosa — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 162 Antaresia maculosus — COGGER 2000: 606 Antaresia maculosa brentonoloughlini HOSER 2003 Antaresia maculosa — HASSELBERG 2004 Antaresia maculosus — GREER 2006 (online) Antaresia maculosa — WILSON & SWAN 2010 Antaresia maculosa — WALLACH et al. 2014: 45 Antaresia maculosa — ESQUERRÉ et al. 2021 Antaresia maculosa peninsularis ESQUERRÉ et al. 2021: 12 |
| Distribution | Australia (New South Wales, E Queensland) Type locality: “Rockhampton, Port Mackay, Port Bowen” [Queensland] peninsularis: Australia (Queensland); Type locality: Cooktown, Queensland, Australia (15.47°S; 142.25°E). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: ZMB 5948, A. Dietrich. Lectotype designation by Smith (1985). Holotype: AM R16772 [brentonoloughlini] Holotype. SAMA R12797 (female), collected at Cooktown, Queensland, Australia (15.47°S; 142.25°E) by H. Ehmann in November 1971. Paratypes. QMSB 33,588 (male) collected at Cairns area, Queensland (16.91° S; 145.77° E) in March 1975. QMSB 78,127 (sex unknown) collected at Lockhart River area, Queensland (12.97° S; 143.52° E) in July 2001. QMSB 31,830 (male) collected at Portland Roads, Queensland (12.6° S; 143.42° E) by G. Ingram on December 1978. MAGNT R5089 (male) collected at Edward River, Queensland (14.65°S; 142.05°E) by J. Bredl in 1976. SAMA R46757 (male) collected at Cairns, Queensland (16.92° S; 145.77° E) by R. Foster in January 1996. SAMA R4906 (female) collected at Cairns, Queensland (16.92° S; 145.77° E) by R. McKecknie in January 1963. SAMA R9942 (male) collected at Leggitts Lagoon, Queensland (15.43° S; 145.15° E) by F. Parker in May 1968 [peninsularis] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: The clade found in our analyses that we call maculosa b. It differs from Antaresia perthensis by having highly contrasted large dark blotches with usually ragged edges along the body (vs less contrasted blotches and dots), a larger body size (max. SVL 1220 mm vs 670 mm) and a higher number of ventrals (249–280 vs 213–247). It differs from A. childreni by having a blotched pattern (vs. being patternless) or by lacking a space between the blotches in the anterior third of the body creating a lateral pale stripe and by generally having more ragged edges on its blotches. There are no consistent morphological diagnostic characters to differentiate it from the subspecies in Cape York, but it can be differentiated from it by various nucleotide substitutions in the cyt-b gene (see Table S7). From the species in the Torres Strait and New Guinea it is differentiated by having larger and more contrasting blotches (vs smaller scattered dots), and by never having less than four prefrontal scales (vs. sometimes having two or three prefrontals) (Esquerré et al. 2021). |
| Comment | Hoser (2004) separated brentonoloughlini from the nominate subspecies “by its greater preponderance of light colouration relative to dark blotches on the dorsal surface” (Hoser 2004), stating that the nominate form would “have roughly half to half (50:50) dark versus light blothes” whereas the ratio in this taxon “is generally at least 60% light colour to 40% or less darker blotches” (Hoser 2004), and by larger average size. Type locality: 16 km east of Coen, Queensland, Australia. Habitat: partly arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). Distribution: see Esquerré et al. 2021 for maps of both morphologically and genetically defined populations. Populations from Papua New Guinea were described as A. papuensis. |
| Etymology | The subspecific name maculosa applies from being the nominotypical taxon Antaresia maculosa, which means ‘spotted’, hence we propose the common name ‘Southern Spotted Python’. The Latin name peninsularis refers to the Cape York Peninsula, where this taxon is found. |
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