Apodora papuana (PETERS & DORIA, 1878)
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Apodora papuana?
Apodora papuana
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| Higher Taxa | Pythonidae, Henophidia, Pythonoidea, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Papuan (olive) python G: Papua-Olivpython, Papuapython |
| Synonym | Liasis papuanus PETERS & DORIA 1878: 400 Liasis papuanus — BOULENGER 1893: 80 Liasis Tornieri WERNER 1897: 261 Liasis tornieri — DE ROOIJ 1917: 18 Liasis papuanus — DE ROOIJ 1917: 19 Liasis maximus WERNER 1936 Liasis olivaceus papuanus — STIMSON 1969: 26 Liasis papuanus — MCDOWELL 1975: 38 Apodora papuana — KLUGE 1993 Morelia papuana — WELCH 1994 Apodora papuana — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 164 Apodora papuana — WARLINGS et al. 2008 Apodora papuana — SCHLEIP & O’SHEA 2010 Liasis papuana — REYNOLDS et al. 2014 Apodora papuana — WALLACH et al. 2014: 49 Apodora papuana — BARKER et al. 2015 Apodora papuana — ESQUERRÉ et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (Misool and Irian Jaya) Type locality: Soron (Costa N. O. della N. Guinea)” [Sorong, Irian Jaya, Indonesia] = “Romoi, near Soron” fide KLUGE (1993). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: MSNG 29988 (fide CAPOCACCIA 1961, Kluge 1993) |
| Diagnosis | |
| Comment | Synonymy mostly after Stimson 1969 and Kluge 1993. Apodora was synonymized with Liasis by Reynolds et al. 2014. Type species: Liasis papuanus PETERS & DORIA 1878: 400 is the type species of the genus Apodora KLUGE 1993. Kluge did not diagnose the genus (he only provided diagnoses for genus groups as the relationship to other genera was unknown and only got resolved by Esquerré et al. 2020). Apodora “looks and feels different from Liasis. Liasis are "tight bodied" muscular with relatively long heads. Apodora are different in appearance, they have looser skin (name!), which can tear and scare easily, almost autotomising, and very distinct black interstitial skin that almost etches around each scute. They have chunky heads, not long heads like the three Liasis.” (Mark O’Shea, pers. comm., 2 Feb 2015). |
| Etymology | The species was named after its distribution in Papua New Guinea. The genus name, Apodora, is from Greek feminine meaning "a peeling of the skin” (Brown, 1956:716), which emphasises the peculiar nature of this species' relatively thin and fragile integument (Kluge 1993). |
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