Erycinae
Indian sand boa ( Eryx johnii )
The sand boas ( Erycinae ) are a subfamily of the Boas ( Boidae ). The animals will reach a total length that is significantly less than one meter and only in the genus Charina there are larger species.
Features
The diagnostic features of the sand boas are found mainly in the consideration of the skeleton and reproductive organs. They differ from the Boinae by the widely separated Praefrontalia, the only little or no forked hemipenes of the males and the forked neurapophyses the caudal vertebrae.
Way of life
All species are viviparous ( ovoviviparous ), no eggs, there are so placed, but they are already being hatched in the womb of the mother. Just before hatching, the mother gives birth to snake the pups in transparent thin egg cases, a fixed eggshell is not formed. An exception is the Erdpython ( Charina reinhardtii ), which lays eggs.
System
The sand boas are divided into four genera with a total of 15 recognized species, with three of the four genera are monotypic, ie which contain only one type. The Real Sand Boas ( Eryx ) live in Africa, Asia and part of Europe during the genera Charina and Lichanura in North America are native and Calabaria found only in West Africa. The former genus Gongylophis, which consisted of the types Gongylophis colobrinus, Gongylophis conicus and Gongylophis muelleri was merged in 2006 with Eryx. The systematics of snakes varies according to the state of current research, 2012 lists the following Reptile Database that the sand boas belonging ways:
- Calabaria Erdpython ( Calabaria reinhardtii )
- Rubber Boa ( Charina bottae )
- Eryx borrii
- Egyptian sand boa ( Eryx colobrinus )
- Spotted sand boa ( Eryx conicus )
- Afghan sand boa ( Eryx elegans)
- Western sand boa ( Eryx jaculus )
- Arab sand boa ( Eryx jayakari )
- Indian sand boa ( Eryx johnii )
- Eastern sand boa or desert sand boa ( Eryx miliaris )
- Sahara sand boa ( Eryx muelleri )
- Somali sand boa ( Eryx somalicus )
- Large sand boa or Tatar sand boa ( Eryx tataricus )
- Withakers sand boa ( Eryx whitakeri )
- Boa ( Lichanura trivirgata )