Xenopeltidae

Xenopeltidae is a monotypic family containing a single genus, Xenopeltis, commonly called sunbeam snakes, with three species. They live across Southeast Asia, from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands through Myanmar to southern China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the East Indies as far as Sulawesi and the Philippines. Their scales have a strongly iridescent sheen, and adults reach about 1.3 meters, with reddish brown, brown or blackish upperparts and plain whitish gray undersides; they have large head plates similar to colubrid snakes and lack pelvic vestiges. DNA studies place them as close relatives of the Mexican burrowing python and the true pythons.