LEIOPYTHON ALBERTISI BARKERI SUBSP. NOV.
HOLOTYPE: A female specimen, at the Universitetets Zoologiske Museum, Copenhagen (R5444) collected by the Noona Dan Expedition, from the Island of Mussau in the Saint Matthias Group, Bismarck Archipelago, Lat: 1° 30' Long: 149° 40'. Scalation is smooth with 267 ventrals and 72 subcaudals.
PARATYPE: A male specimen, at the Universitetets Zoologiske Museum, Copenhagen (R5445) collected by the Noona Dan Expedition, from the Island of Mussau, in the Saint Matthias Group, Bismarck Archipelago, Lat: 1° 30' 149° 40'. Scalation is smooth with 271 ventrals and 73 subcaudals.
DIAGNOSIS: This is the subspecies of L. albertisi that is endemic to Mussau Island in the Saint Matthias Group, Bismarck Archipelago. It is separated from L. albertisi albertisi by the mutually exclusive distribution and by analysis of mitochondrial DNA. Ventral counts for this species are near the lower limit for the range for New Guinea L. albertisi. The trait may be used as a potential indicator for the subspecies in the absence of other data. Other scalation counts and properties also overlap with those of the type subspecies.
ETYMOLOGY: Named after two people, namely David and Tracy Barker of Texas. The husband and wife team have developed one of the most sophisticated python breeding facilities in the world.
The above was from the paper - A revision of the Australiasian Pythons.
(Originally published in Ophidia Review 1(1) in "Autumn" 2000 - (Publication date: October 2000), pp. 7-27).
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