02-05-2025
Tick-infested creature bites researcher in Papua New Guinea. It's a new species
On Sudest Island in southern Papua New Guinea, a creature covered in ticks moved across the rainforest floor.
Its slithering body, more than a foot long, was snatched up by a research assistant in 2004, according to a study published May 1 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
Then the animal bit down.
More than 20 years later, that snake has been identified as a species new to science, according to the study.
Fred Kraus, a researcher in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, was studying snakes in Papua New Guinea when one of his research assistants took the bite to the hand, he wrote in the study.
'His hand swelled to approximately twice its normal size, he was in some pain, and had some joint stiffness' that lasted until the next day, Kraus wrote. 'Bites from this species were viewed locally as of no particular concern.'
Despite the interaction, it would be two decades before the species would be described for the first time.
The snake belongs to a genus called Aspidomorphus, found in the Papuan islands, according to the study. Their group has been described as 'confusing,' as it's hard to tell different related species apart.
'Among these insular populations, that from Sudest Island was immediately recognized by me as distinct from other populations,' Kraus wrote. 'This population is dramatically distinct in being bimodal for two very distinct color patterns, but both color-pattern morphs were found to be genetically identical.'
Kraus named the new species Aspidomorphus dimorphus, from the Greek words meaning 'two forms' to reference the snake's 'unique' color pattern.
The snakes range in size from 14 inches to 20 inches, according to the study, and stand out from related species because of their coloration.
The orange morph, or color group, is identified by a 'uniformly orange-brown' back with a 'salmon pink' throat, 'bright red iris' and a 'black tongue,' Kraus wrote. About half of the specimens examined for the study belonged to this orange group.
The other half are called 'dark morphs' and have 'dark brown' backs with 'charcoal-gray heads' with a much darker eye surrounded by a thin 'red rim,' according to the study.
'Aspidomorphus dimorphus sp. nov. is unique among Papuan snakes in having such a strikingly bimodal color pattern among adults, with differences encompassing not only color but pattern elements too,' Kraus wrote. '... Other Papuan snakes do not show this color-pattern dimorphism.'
Notably, the differences are not determined by sex, as Kraus' team found males and females with both color patterns, according to the study.
'The specimens I obtained all came from primary rainforest at elevations ranging from (about 300 to 1200 feet above sea level). Most animals were found active on the forest floor from early to mid-morning, but (one snake) came from a bucket trap placed along a drift fence,' Kraus wrote.
Most of the snakes were found with ticks lodged under some of their scales, some with as many as 10 ticks hitching a ride on their bodies, according to the study.
The snakes have only been found on Sudest Island, Kraus wrote, but it is possible they may also appear on other smaller islands in the chain.
Kraus recently reported the discovery of another new species of snake from the same island in April, McClatchy News reported.
Sudest Island is off the southeastern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and northeast of Australia.
