Ungaliophiinae Explained

Ungaliophiinae is a subfamily of booid snakes containing two genera, Ungaliophis (two species) and Exiliboa (one species). They are small constrictors that are found in Central and South America from southern Mexico to Colombia. They eat mostly lizards and frogs and have been poorly studied.

These snakes were formerly thought to be closely related to two other genera, Tropidophis and Trachyboa; all four genera were united in the family (Tropidophiidae) based on the presence of a tracheal lung and the absence of a left lung. However, Ungaliophis and Exiliboa are now known to be more closely related to the booids,^[1] whereas Tropidophis and Trachyboa are now known to be more closely related to the American pipe snake (Anilius scytale).^[2] Within the Booidea, Ungaliophis and Exiliboa are thought to be most closely related to the North American Charina and Lichanura boas.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Wilcox . Thomas P . Zwickl . Derrick J . Heath . Tracy A . Hillis . David M . Phylogenetic relationships of the dwarf boas and a comparison of Bayesian and bootstrap measures of phylogenetic support . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . October 2002 . 25 . 2 . 361–371 . 10.1016/s1055-7903(02)00244-0 . 12414316 .
2. Book: Vidal . Nicolas . Delmas . Anne-Sophie . Hedges . S. Blair . The higher-level relationships of alethinophidian snakes inferred from seven nuclear and mitochondrial genes . 27–33 . http://www.hedgeslab.org/pubs/188.pdf . Henderson . Robert W. . Powell . Robert . Biology of the Boas and Pythons . 2007 . Eagle Mountain Publishing . 978-0-9720154-3-1 .
3. Graham Reynolds . R. . Niemiller . Matthew L. . Revell . Liam J. . Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . February 2014 . 71 . 201–213 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.011 . 24315866 .