The three extant Acrochordus species (the only three species included in the family Acrochordidae) exhibit differences in their ecology, scalation, and anatomy. Acrochordus javanicus are large and heavy-bodied (exceeding 10 kg and 2 m total length) and are found in freshwater (and sometimes brackish) habitats in southern Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan, where they are harvested on a large scale for the reptile skin trade. A similar species, Acrochordus arafurae, was not recognised as a species distinct from A. javanicus until the late 1970s. Acrochordus arafurae have a similar total length as A. javanicus, but are much less heavy-bodied, being nearly half as heavy at the same snout-vent length. Acrochordus arafurae occurs in exclusively freshwater habitats of northern Australia and southern New Guinea.
(Sanders et al. 2010 and references therein)
