Morelia macburniei Hoser, 2004

Schleip, Wulf D. & O'Shea, Mark, 2010, Annotated checklist of the recent and extinct pythons (Serpentes, Pythonidae), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution, ZooKeys 66, pp. 29-80 : 45

Morelia macburniei Hoser, 2004 [synonym of Morelia spilota imbricata]

Holotype:

SAMA R13994.

Type locality:

St. Francis Island, South Australia.

Remarks:

Hoser (2004) separated this taxon from its closest relative Morelia spilota imbricata (see Schwaner et al. 1988) on the ground of "higher incidence of scale anomalies" to the ventral scales. It can be argued that anomalies do not make good diagnostic characters, and these anomalies were already described in detail by Schwaner et al. (1988). Hoser (2004) further claims that this taxon may be distinguished from Morelia mippughae "by having lanceolate-shaped dorsal scales as opposed to more rhomboidal-shaped dorsal scales" (also see comments on Morelia mippughae ). According to Schwaner et al. (1988: 15), and in support of Smith (1981), "specimens of imbricata have distinctly elongated, lanceolate-shaped, posterior dorsal scales. Morelia spilota variegata usually have the rhomboidal condition". Furthermore, Schwaner et al. (1988) also reported that specimens from the St. Francis Island exhibited reduced ventral and subcaudal scale counts and a shorter tail than specimens from other populations. Hoser (2004) stated that this taxon is distinguishable from "all other Morelia by colouration and patterns" ( Hoser 2004), but contradicted this statement when stating that this taxon is "highly variable in individual colouration and pattern", and that "this species cannot be definitively separated from other Morelia on the basis of scalation alone as these properties (ventral counts and the like) may overlap with other Morelia " ( Hoser 2004). Based on this description, it is unlikely that specimens can be correctly assigned to this species unless they were known to originate from the type locality. Schwaner et al. (1988: 14) and Pearson et al. (2002) assigned the St. Francis Island population to the subspecies Morelia spilota imbricata . We concur with this and relegate this taxon to the synonymy of Morelia spilota imbricata . Mense (2006), Henderson and Powell (2007), and Swan (2007) did not list this taxon.