Morelia spilota harrisoni Hoser, 2000

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 : 47

Morelia spilota harrisoni Hoser, 2000 [subspecies inquirenda, APP7]

Holotype:

AMNH R-82433.

Type locality:

Port Moresby, Central Province, Papua New Guinea.

Remarks:

Hoser (2000: 24) described this taxon at specific rank but considered it "similar in most respects to the others in the genus Morelia " separating it from Morelia spilota cheynei , Morelia spilota variegata , and Morelia spilota mcdowelli "by distribution" (APP1, APP2), and further stating that specimens of this taxon "tend to have a lower average ventral and subcaudal scale count than Morelia cheynei , Morelia variegata and Morelia macdowelli , however the sample seen is too small to conclude if this trend is general" ( Hoser 2000: 25). Hoser’s concept of this taxon comprises several populations throughout New Guinea. The author referred to Barker and Barker (1999) for further diagnostic characters. Barker and Barker identified several different and distinct populations from New Guinea, which Hoser (2000) placed within this catch-all taxon. For the "Port Moresby" population Barker and Barker (1999) stated that they "exhibit some characteristics of both variegata and mcdowelli ( …).Most Port Moresby carpets have longitudinally expanded lateral pale blotches and bold facial stripes from the eye to the nasal scale, as do mcdowelli in northern Queensland. The patterns on the tops of the heads are similar to variegata". For the "Irian Jaya" (now West Papuan or Papuan) population they stated that "[a]t 2 and 3 years of age, some are even as black and gold as Morelia spilota cheynei ", but did not provide further information on the “Trans-fly” (PNG) or the "Northern New Guinea" populations. Hoser (2000: 25) finally stated that " Morelia harrisoni can best be definitively separated from the other species of Morelia by DNA analysis" (APP2). To the authors’s best knowledge, no such analysis has been carried out. Since the diagnostic characters provided by Hoser (2000) and by Barker and Barker (1999) overlap with those for other taxa of the Morelia spilota complex, this taxon is likely to be confused with them. We consider this taxon a subspecies inquirenda (APP7). Henderson and Powell (2007) did not recognize this taxon. Mense (2006) discussed this taxon as a subspecies of Morelia spilota , and O’Shea (2007: 134) wrote: "Papuan Carpet Python Morelia spilota ssp. The status of all New Guinea Carpet Pythons is controversial ( …). The New Guinea populations are fragmented and isolated, and their taxonomic status and relationships have yet to be determined with certainty". Until further research has established otherwise, these authors treat this taxon as a subspecies of Morelia spilota , as proposed by Mense (2006) and Flagle and Stoops (2009).