Leiopython.de - The Information Source for Fans, Breeders, and Herpetologists

Taxonomy & Species Accounts :: Ecology :: Biology :: Captive Care & Breeding :: Misc topics

Misc topics

Organ calcification death
Aberrant specimens

Aberrant specimens

Figure 24: A hypomelanistic Northern White-Lipped Python collected for pet trade. I don't know much about this specimen. Photo courtesy of Bushmaster Reptiles (www.kingsnake.com/bushmaster).
Figure 25: This specimen is a hypomelanistic Southern White-Lipped Python from Port Moresby, PNG. It was collected by Robert G. Sparkland (www.curator.org), and was in captive care. It has a more brick red head and a copper dorsal color. Photo courtesy of Robert G. Sparkland.

Figure 26: This is a specimen photographed by Dave Barker (vpi.com) in the vicinity of Fak Fak. Dave told me that these specimens have a huge head, which is not black but brick red, and that these specimens tend to be less nervous than other Northern White-Lipped Pythons. Dave considered them as the "brown race", but I haven't found any evidence for the existence of such race in museum collections. Nevertheless, the Fak Fak regency is an interesting distribution for White-Lipped Pythons, and this area might be an intergradation zone. Photo courtesy of Dave G. Barker.
Figure 27: This specimen is a Southern White-Lipped Python. Notice the white dorsal bands! These were mentioned by McDowell (1975), but are rarely found in specimens. Photo courtesy of Dennis Desmond.
Figure 28: This is one of the specimens that hatched from a clutch bred by Robert Seib (easternindigo.com). Notice the missing black bars on the supralabialia and the the white flecks around the eye. Robert told me, he wasn't even aware of having some aberrant coloration. Photo courtesy of Robert Seib.