Malayopython

''Malayopython'' is a genus of constricting snakes in the family Pythonidae. The genus is native to India and Southeast Asia. It contains two species, both of which were previously classified within the genus '' Python''. However, multiple studies recovered these species as distinct. Known as the "''reticulatus'' clade", it was eventually found to be a sister lineage to a lineage giving rise to the Indo-Australian pythons rather than the genus ''Python''.

Taxonomy

In 1975, American herpetologist Samuel Booker McDowell divided the genus ''Python'' into a "''molurus'' group" and "''reticulatus'' group" on the basis of differences in supralabial pits (shallow diagonal slits in the latter, square or triangular in the former) and infralabial pits (shallow and not in a groove in the former, in a groove in the latter), as well as differences in the ectopterygoid and hemipenis. He added New Guinea members of ''Liasis'' and ''Morelia'' to the ''reticulatus'' group. American zoologist Arnold G. Kluge performed a cladistics analysis on morphological characters and recovered a ''reticulatus'' lineage as a sister to the genus ''Python''; hence not requiring a new generic name in 1993. In a 2004 genetics study using cytochrome b DNA, Robin Lawson and colleagues recovered the reticulated python as a sister to the Australo-Papuan pythons, rather than ''Python molurus'' and its relatives.

Raymond Hoser erected the genus ''Broghammerus'' for the reticulated python in 2004, naming it after German snake expert Stefan Broghammer, on the basis of dorsal patterns distinct from those of the genus ''Python'', and a dark mid-dorsal line from the rear to the front of the head, and red or orange (rather than brown) iris colour. In 2008, Lesley Rawlings and colleagues reanalysed Kruge's morphological data and combined them with genetic material, and found the reticulated clade to be an offshoot of the Australo-Papuan lineage, as well. They adopted and redefined the genus name ''Broghammerus''. Reynolds and colleagues also confirmed the clade's place as a sister to the Australo-Papuan pythons and coined the name ''Malayopython'', stating that the name ''Broghammerus'' was "invalid" due to it being "non-peer reviewed writing that included no formal data or analyses". Reynolds and colleagues cite Kaiser and colleagues who state that, pending "suitable action" from the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the name ''Python'' should be used in preference of ''Broghammerus.'' In 2021, the ICZN reported that it found no basis under the provisions of the Code for regarding oser's journalas being "unpublished" (i.e. invalid).ICZN. 2021. Opinion 2468 (Case 3601) - Spracklandus Hoser, 2009 (Reptilia, Serpentes, Elapidae) and Australasian Journal of Herpetology issues 1-24: confirmation of availability declined; Appendix A (Code of Ethics): not adopted as a formal criterion for ruling on cases. The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 78:42–45.

Species

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20052394

Snake genera
Pythonidae