Pythonidae

Branch, William R., 2018, When roads appear jaguars decline: Increased access to an Amazonian wilderness area reduces potential for jaguar conservation, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 159) 12 (2), pp. 41-82 : 46-47

Family: Pythonidae

Namib Dwarf Python

Python anchietae (Bocage 1887)

Python anchietae Bocage, 1887 . Sur un Python nouveau d’Afrique. Jorn. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa 12: 87.

Bocage (1887a) described the dwarf python from “Catumbella” (= Catumbela, Benguela Province). Additional Angolan specimens are noted from Hanha ( Bogert 1940) and 18 km from Lobito to Hanha ( Laurent 1964). During field work in Angola (1974), Wulf Haacke collected the only record from the inland plateau at Viriambundo, Huila Province (15°33’S, 14°03’E, 1,288 m a.s.l.). Restricted mainly to the coastal plain of southwest Angola, with a more extensive distribution in northern Namibia.

Southern African Python

Python natalensis (Smith 1840)

Python natalensis Smith, 1840 . Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa, Reptilia. Smith, Elder, and Co., London: 3, pl. 9.

Angolan pythons examined by Bocage (1895) were mostly from southern Angola and conformed to P. natalensis . He thus referred them to P. natalensis , but he was cautious whether they were “a species apart or… a simple variety of P. Sebae ’. For most of the 20 th Century African pythons were treated as a monotypic P. sebae , although Monard (1931) noted that his material from Ebanga, Chimporo and Vila da Ponte (= Cuvango) had the characteristics of natalensis . Broadley (1984) revived P. s. natalensis as a subspecies for southern populations, to which he referred material from Bocage (1895), Bogert (1940), and Monard (1937). He considered the Kwanza River to be the northern boundary for the species in the west. Later he raised P. s. natalensis to a full species ( Broadley 1999). Pythons form part of the Henophidia, along with boas and their relatives. They are restricted to the Old World with about 40 species in eight genera, most within Aus- Fig. 2. Python natalensis , bottom of Leba Pass, Namibe Provtralasia and with only four in Africa, three of which occur ince.

in Angola. The Calabar Burrowing Python ( Calabaria reinhardtii ) is no longer included within the Pythonidae Northern African Python as it has greater affinities with boas, and is placed in a Python sebae (Gmelin 1789)

monotypic subfamily ( Calabariinae ) within an enlarged

Boidae (Pyron et al. 2014) . It is restricted to forest habi- Coluber Sebae Gmelin in Linnaeus, 1789. Caroli a Linné Systat in West Africa and the Congo Basin, but is unknown tema naturae. 13. ed., Tom 1 Pars 3. G. E. Beer, Lipsiae: 1118. from Angola, although it may extend south into Cabinda.

Bocage (1895) did not refer any Angolan pythons to P. sebae . Broadley (1984), however, considered the species to enter northern Angola, reaching as far south as Ambriz on the coast. Both Laurent (1954, 1964) and Tys van den Audenaerde (1967) recorded pythons from Dundo, which Broadley (1984) also referred to P. sebae . Broadley (1984) showed that scalation features overlapped considerably between sebae and natalensis , and that the most distinctive features between the putative taxa were the extent of scale fragmentation on the crown of the head and head color pattern. There are no Angolan localities where parapatry occurs between the two taxa ( Broadley 1984).