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Acrochordus arafurae MCDOWELL, 1979

IUCN Red List - Acrochordus arafurae - Least Concern, LC

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Higher TaxaAcrochordidae, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Arafura filesnake 
SynonymAcrochordus arafurae MCDOWELL 1979: 75
Acrochordus arafurae — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 226
Acrochordus arafurae — COGGER 2000: 615
Acrochordus arafurae — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Acrochordus arafurae — WALLACH et al. 2014: 7 
DistributionE Indonesia (Papua), Papua New Guinea, N Australia (coastal areas of Northern Territory, Queensland)

Type locality: Lake Daviumbo, western Province.  
Reproductionovovivparous. Acrochordus arafurae may be the second parthenogenetic snake species (after Ramphotyplops braminus). 
TypesHolotype: AMNH 59887 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (see also key to species of Acrochordus above). Differing from other species of Acrochordus in each of the following features: 1) nasal bones fused anteriorly; 2) hemipenis forked only at extreme tip, without spines or papillae; 3) pattern with intricate network of dark markings that are connected with one another but isolate spots of the brown or tawny ground colour. Additionally differing from A. javanicus (but resembling A. granulatus) in 1) absence of coronoid process on lower jaw; 2) posterior dentary teeth resembling other teeth in form; 3) scales of sides with one main cusp, flanked by much smaller cusps; 4) nasal bones tapering to a median anterior point; 5) maxillary teeth fewer (16-19); 6) dentary teeth fewer (13-17). Additionally differing from A. granulatus (but resembling A. javanicus) in: 1) nostrils directed forward, without upward inclination, separated from eye by 11-14 scales (against 5-7); 2) scales of lips less enlarged, with more rows (8-11, against 5-7) between eye and edge of lip; 3) long pterygoid row of 11-16 (against 5-7) teeth; 4) no transversely enlarged scale behind nasal; 5) less compressed tail, its vertical diametre much less than twice its horizontal diametre. (The hemipenial characters of this diagnosis checked on all males of material listed above; external, osteological, and dental characters checked on all material listed above, except nasal bones not checked for MCZ 118668, 118669, 118765, and 129121. In addition, vertebrae in region of heart checked on AMNH 86182 [Borroloola, Northern Territory] and found to have short neural spine confined to posterior edge of neural arch, essentially as in A. granulatus but unlike the high neural spine that arises from most of the length of the neural arch in A. javanicus and the Miocene-Pliocene A. dehmi Hoffstetter [1964] ). (McDowell 1979: 76)


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Comment 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality in the Arafura Sea. 
References
  • Booth, Warren; Gordon W. Schuett 2015. The emerging phylogenetic pattern of parthenogenesis in snakes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 118 (2): 172–186, DOI: 10.1111/bij.12744
  • Bruton MJ 2012. Benefits of thermal acclimation in a tropical aquatic ectotherm, the Arafura filesnake, Acrochordus arafurae. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 182, 541-551 - get paper here
  • Burger W. L. and Natsuno, T. 1974. A new genus for the Arafura Smooth Seasnake and redefinitions of other seasnake genera. The Snake 6: 61-75.
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Doody, J. Sean, Gary Vas and Phill Mangion. 2015. Acrochordus arafurae (Arafura file snake) foraging / prey coralling behavior. Herpetological Review 46 (3): 441 - get paper here
  • Dubach, Jean, Agatha Sajewicz and Ray Pawley 1997. Parthenogenesis in the Arafuran file snake (Acrochordus arafurae). Herpetological Natural History 5 (1):11-18.
  • Mattison, Chris 2007. The New Encyclopedia of Snakes. Princeton University Press
  • McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp.
  • McDowell S B 1979. A catalogue of the snakes of New Guinea and the Solomons, with special reference to those in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Part 3. Boinae and Acrochordoidea (Reptilia, Serpentes). Journal of Herpetology 13 (1): 1-92 - get paper here
  • O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here
  • O’Shea,M. 1996. A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea. Independent Publishing, Port Moresby, xii + 239 pp. - get paper here
  • Parkin, T., Jolly, C. J., de Laive, A., & von Takach, B. 2020. Snakes on an urban plain: Temporal patterns of snake activity and human–snake conflict in Darwin, Australia. Austral Ecology - get paper here
  • Sanders, Kate L.; Mumpuni, Amir Hamidy, Jason J. Head, David J. Gower 2010. Phylogeny and divergence times of filesnakes (Acrochordus): Inferences from morphology, fossils and three molecular loci. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56 (3): 857-867 - get paper here
  • Shine, R. 1986. Predation upon filesnakes (Acrochordus arafurae) by aboriginal hunters: selectivity with respect to size, sex and reproductive condition Copeia 1986 (1): 238-239. - get paper here
  • Shine, R. 1986. Sexual differences in morphology and niche utilization in an aquatic snake, Acrochordus arafurae. Oecologia (Berl.) 69: 260-267 - get paper here
  • Shine, Richard; Claire Goiran, Catherine Shilton, Shai Meiri, Gregory P Brown 2019. The life aquatic: an association between habitat type and skin thickness in snakes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, blz136 - get paper here
  • Somaweera, R. 2009. Snakes of Darwin. Poster, University of Sydney
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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