Exiliboa placata BOGERT, 1968
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Exiliboa placata
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| Higher Taxa | Boidae (Charinaidae, Ungaliophiinae), Henophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Oaxacan Dwarf Boa G: Oaxaca-Zwerg Boa S: Boa Enana Oaxaqueña |
| Synonym | Exiliboa placata BOGERT 1968: 6 Exiliboa placata — LINER 1994 Exiliboa placata — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 215 Exiliboa placata — GOWER et al. 2012: 65 Exiliboa placata — WALLACH et al. 2014: 293 Exiliboa placata — REYNOLDS & HENDERSON 2018: 31 |
| Distribution | Mexico (Oaxaca) Type locality: 17°37’N, 96°25’W on the headwaters of the Rio Valle Nacional, northern slopes of the Sierra de Juárez, elevation 2300 m. |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Holotype: AMNH 100 000, female |
| Diagnosis | DIAGNOSIS (GENUS): “A small, nearly unicolored, prehensile-tailed boa, characterized by its possession of a large azygous internasal in broad contact with the rostral, and flanked on each side by a single nasal. This peculiar configuration of the scales readily distinguishes Exiliboa from Ungaliophis and from Tropidophis, al members of which have paired internasals and divided nasal plates (fig. 1). Exiliboa retains a pair of prefrontals in contrast to the azygous prefrontal of Ungaliophis, and the two pairs of prefrontals normally present on Tropidophis. The loreal is retained by Exiliboa, whereas it is absent from, or fused with the anterior prefrontal of, Tropidophis. The mental groove of Exiliboa is bordered by only three pairs of shields, but the groove is bordered by four scales in Ungaliophis and by four or five in Tropidophis. Furthermore, the female of Exiliboa differs from that of other dwarf boas in its retention of external vestiges of limbs. “ (Bogert 1968) Additional details (7471 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Higher Taxa: Wilcox et al. (2002) extablished a new family for Exiliboa and Ungaliophis, Ungaliophiidae, based on DNA sequence analysis. More recent authors (e.g. Pyron et al. 2013) grouped Exiliboa, Ungaliophis, Charina, and Lichanura into Ungaliophiinae which is basal to most other boids. Type species: Exiliboa placata BOGERT 1968 is the type species of the genus Exiliboa BOGERT 1968. |
| Etymology | Named after Latin placata, kindly disposed; peaceful, calm. [“...When the rock was overturned the snake was motionless, but it evidently had been crawling through a passageway in the rocky soil...”]. The genus was named after Latin exilis, small, thin; poor + Latin Boa, snake genus due to Linnaeus, 1758. ["...A small, nearly unicolored, prehensile-tailed boa…"]. |
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