New Guinea Boa
New Guinea Boa | ||||||||||||
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Candoia aspera | ||||||||||||
( Günther , 1877) |
The New Guinea boa ( Candoia aspera ), also called viper boa , Pacific boa or South Sea boa, is a species of snake from the genus of the Pacific boas .
features
The New Guinea Boa is a stocky snake with an average of 60 to 90 cm, a maximum of about one meter in length. The head is triangular with a straight edge of the snout and is clearly set off from the neck. The head shields are granular in appearance. The eye is surrounded by a wreath of small scales. There are 9 to 14 supra- and 12 to 17 sub-labial shields . The trunk has 30 to 45 rows of keeled body scales, 127 to 153 ventral shields , 11 to 22 undivided subcaudal shields, and an undivided anal shield . The body has large saddle spots on a rust to black-brown basic color, which are more or less square shaped and brown to black-brown, rarely red, and black-edged and which sometimes merge into a zigzag or wavy band. The males have elongated anal spurs. The tail is very short and not designed as a grasping tail.
Outwardly, the species is reminiscent of the death otter Acanthophis laevis , with which it often shares its habitat.
Occurrence
New Guinea boas are found in primary and secondary tropical rainforests on Papua New Guinea , Irian Jaya , several Indonesian islands, the Moluccas , the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands, and the Tokelau Islands . The species is mainly found near water bodies and only rarely in dry areas.
Way of life
The species is predominantly nocturnal and ground-living and is only found sporadically on trees. The animals usually hide under vegetation or leaf litter. When threatened, they curl up in a ball in the middle of which the head is kept hidden. Skinks , other lizards, frogs, small mammals and ground-dwelling birds serve as food . New Guinea boas are viviparous .
swell
- Ludwig Trutnau : Non-poisonous snakes, part 1 . 4th edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3223-0 .
Web links
- Description and pictures at www.ecologyasia.com
- Candoia aspera in The Reptile Database