Desert Sand Boa

Eryx miliaris, known as the dwarf sand boa, desert sand boa, and if formally synonymised with Eryx tataricus, as Tartar sand boa, is a widely distributed, largely Asian species of snake of the Boidae (boa, Erycidae) family. On behalf of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), scientists assessed the populations of E. miliaris/tataricus across its range of habitats for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in April 2016, assigning them the status of "Least Concern".

The IUCN, the Reptile Database (RBD), and other contributing sources paint a relatively consistent picture of the distribution of these and other synonymous species, ranging from Iraq and Iran in the west, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea through all of central Asia, south into Afghanistan and Pakistan, and north and east into southern Russia, Mongolia, and Inner Mongolia in northern China.

The species may be the inspiration for a cryptid of legend, the Mongolian death worm.

Description

Phylogeny, naming, synonymy

Eryx miliaris (deemed synonymous with E. tataricus based on mtDNA and morphologic analyses) is commonly known as the dwarf sand boa and desert sand boa (and via E. tataricus, the Tartar sand boa), and is a species of snake in the Boidae (Erycinae, Erycidae, boa) family. Formal subspecies—sometimes termed direct children—include E. miliaris miliaris [Pallas 1773] and E. miliaris nogaiorum [Nikolsky 1910]. Common names that E. miliaris is reportedly known by are the mountain sand boa, and various geographical names including Russian and Turkmen sand boas. As well, the various subspecies have sometimes been given distinct common names, e.f., E. miliaris nogaiorum as the black sand boa.

General physical description

The appearance of E. miliaris is described by WCH-University of Adelaide as usually having an adult length of 30 centimeters, extending to a maximum of approximately 90 centimeters.

Other sources highlight that, as with most other sand boas, females are larger than males, and that E. tataricus (Tartar sand boa specimens) are the larger variants (the comparison presuming the E. miliaris-E. tataricus synonymy); these sources note that adult Tartar sand boa males rarely reach 75 centimeters in length, while adult females can reach 120 centimeters.

E. miliaris, per se, is reliably described as being, relative to other snakes:Small in length, [and] cylindrical... [a] stout bodied snake with a very short blunt tail... [Its h]ead is indistinct from [its] neck. [Its s]nout is rounded when viewed from above and pointed and projecting when viewed from the side. [Its e]yes are small in size, located dorsally with vertically elliptical pupils. [Its d]orsal scales are smooth to weakly keeled.