I suppose I should apologize for this page - it gets a bit technical in a thinly veiled attempt to cover up my ignorance. I hope you'll understand why as you plough through it. Alternatively scroll down a few times to skip the drivel.

Like much scientific nonsense, the classification of snakes is somewhat arguable - there seem to be many classification schemes in use around the world. Below I've come up with one that while maybe not being 100% spot on for every expert, probably isn't 100% wrong.

Superfamily	Family	"common" name
Typhlopoidea	Anomalepidae Typhlopidae Leptotyphlopidae/Glauconiidae	Dawn Blind Snakes Blind Snakes Slender Blind Snakes
Henophidia	Aniliidae/Ilysiidae Anomochilidae Boidae ( + Xenopeltidae??) Bolyeridae Cylindrophiidae Loxocemidae Tropidophiidae Uropeltidae	Pipe Snakes Dwarf Pipe Snakes Boas and Pythons Round Island Boas Asian Pipe Snakes Burrowing Pythons Woodsnakes Short-tail Snakes
Xenophidia	Acrochordidae Atractaspididae Colubridae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Viperidae	File Snakes Mole Vipers Colubrids Cobras, Kraits, Coral Snakes Sea Snakes Vipers and Pit Vipers
I've put sunbeam snakes in with boas & pythons because there's all manner of rumours to suggest they should be classified as such rather than as a family on their own.

"OK - so what?" I hear you ask. Well, the point I'm trying to make is that the snakes of my acquaintance (boas & pythons) are members of only one of seventeen families of snake. As a comparison: in mammals, one family (Canidae) contains such diverse animals as dogs, bears & weasels.

Or, putting it another way, a corn snake and a boa constrictor are in some ways as different as a gerbil and an elephant. A fact worth bearing in mind when reading up on snakes. What I say about royal pythons might be a load of rubbish if you try to apply it to a garter snake.

Right - now let's get technical with the boids and classify them too:

Subfamily	Genus
Boinae (Boas)	Acrantophis Boa - Featured Candoia Corallus Epicrates Featured Eunectes Featured Sanzinia Xenoboa
Erycinae (Sand Boas)	Charina Eryx Featured Gongylophis Lichanura Featured Xenopeltis
Pythoninae (Pythons)	Aspidites Antaresia Apodora Bothrochilus Calabaria Liasis  Featured Morelia Featured   Python Featured

Again I'm making the point that out of over twenty genuses of boid, I've only really got any experience with eight.

So let's have a brief look at what I do know something about:

Areas marked in grey are where boids can be found in the wild

The snakes featured on this site are:

Boas	boa constrictor Rainbow boa yellow anaconda green anaconda
Ground boas	Rosy boas Sand boas
Pythons	Burmese Carpet Children's Reticulated Royal (or ball)

A couple of points of "Terminology". This site is a UK based site where we have "odd" names for types of snake and so there may be a litle confusion over "common names". To avoid confusion, the following species are synonymous:
UK	Rest of the world
Royal Python Boa Constrictor	Ball Python Red-tailed Boa
Also, like most UK snake-herds, when I refer to feeding a snake, it should be assumed (unless I say otherwise) that the snake is being fed a pre-killed food item.

While I'm not entirely ignorant of other reptiles my experience is mainly limited to certain boas & pythons, and it is these animals on which this site concentrates.