Simalia is a genus of snakes in the family Pythonidae.
Taxonomy Simalia , was considered a taxonomic synonym of Liasis (a genus of non-venomous pythons found in Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia) and Morelia (a genus of large snakes, in the family Pythonidae, found in Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea), but Reynolds et al. (2014) resurrected the genus for the Morelia amethistina species group (which, together with Morelia viridis, had made the genus Morelia paraphyletic).
Species The genus Simalia contains the following species:
Image Species DistributionS. amethistina (type species)Indonesia, Papua New GuineaS. boeleni New GuineaS. clastolepis IndonesiaS. kinghorni northern AustraliaS. nauta IndonesiaS. tracyae Indonesian island of Halmahera
As of June 2022, ITIS and the IUCN Red List identify the Oenpelli python as Simalia oenpelliensis, while The Reptile Database places it in the monotypic genus Nyctophilopython.
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Simalia.
References
Further reading Gray JE (1849). Catalogue of the Specimens of Snakes in the Collection of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum. (Edward Newman, printer). xv + 125 pp. (Simalia, new genus, p. 91).