Aspidites is a genus of pythons endemic to Australia. The name can be translated as "shield bearer" and pertains to the symmetrically shaped head scales. Currently, two species are recognized.
Description These snakes lack the heat-sensitive pits between the labial scales that most other python species have.
The head is slightly wider than the neck, and the eyes are small, with a vertically elliptic pupils.Boulenger GA. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families...Boidæ... Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, Printers.) London. xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I.- XXVIII. (Genus Aspidites, p. 91.)
Distribution and habitat They are found in Australia except in the south of the country.
Behavior Both species are nocturnal,Mehrtens JM. 1987. Living Snakes of the World in Color. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . and terrestrial.Goin CJ, Goin OB, Zug GR. 1978. Introduction to Herpetology, Third Edition. W.H. Freeman. San Francisco. xi + 378 pp. . (Aspidites, p. 319.)
Reproduction Oviparous, the females stay with their eggs until they hatch.
Species SpeciesTaxon authorCommon nameGeographic rangeA. melanocephalusT(Krefft, 1864)Black-headed pythonAustralia in the northern half of the country, excluding the very arid regions.A. ramsayi(Macleay, 1882)Woma pythonAustralia in the west and center of the country: from Western Australia through southern Northern Territory and northern South Australia to southern Queensland and northwestern New South Wales. Its range may be discontinuous.
T) Type species.
Taxonomy Two new subspecies, A. ramsayi panoptes, the western woma python, and A. r. richardjonesii, the desert woma python, were described by Hoser (2001). However, these descriptions are questionable, as they do not include proper diagnoses and seem to be based only on distribution. Wüster W, Bush B, Keogh JS, O'Shea M, Shine R. 2001. Taxonomic contributions in the "amateur" literature: comments on recent descriptions of new genera and species by Raymond Hoser. Litteratura Serpentium 21: 67-91. PDF at Wolfgang Wüster . Accessed 10 September 2007.
References
Further reading Krefft G. 1864. Description of Aspidiotes melanocephalus, a New Snake from Port Denison, N.E. Australia. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1864: 20–22. ("Aspidiotes, nov. gen.", p. 20.) Peters W. 1877. Über die von S.M.S. Gazelle mitgebrachten Amphibien. Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1876: 528–535, 914. (Aspidiotus melanocephalus, p. 533; and Aspidites, p. 914.)
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