The Stimson's python variant has much stronger and more variable colours; often being adorned with reddish-brown to chocolate blotches against lighter tan.

Both the common name and the specific epithet, childreni, are in honour of Gray's mentor, John George Children, a curator of the zoological collection at the British Museum around that time.

[7] Studies published in 2020 on the members of the genus Antaresia concluded that Stimson's and Children's pythons are synonymous species with different polymorphism.

[9] Adults of A. childreni grow to a total length (including tail) around 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) depending on locality and polymorphic variant.

The scales on the top of the head are enlarged, while those on the upper surface of the body are small and smooth, with a rainbow sheen that can be seen when exposed to direct sunlight.

The polymorphic variant known as the Stimson's python has much stronger and more variable colours; often being adorned with reddish-brown to chocolate blotches against lighter tan.

The frontal is one and a half times as long as broad, slightly shorter than its distance from the end of the snout, longer than the small parietals.

The Stimson's python variant is found throughout an even greater range; it occupies much of the interior of Australia, from Queensland to Perth.

[7] A. childreni occurs specifically in the region spanning the coast between the Kimberleys in Western Australia to Mount Isa in northwestern Queensland.

Children's python is found in a variety of natural habitats, including forest, savanna, shrubland, desert, grassland, and freshwater wetlands.

[11] The peak activity period for the Children's python, as determined from callouts by members of the public to professional snake catchers, in the Darwin region is during the later part of the wet season (February–April).

The diet of Children's python consists of reptiles, birds, and small mammals, particularly microbats, which it catches by dangling from stalactites in caves, which they commonly inhabit, and snatching them out of the air as they fly past.

[4] Children's python is often kept as a pet worldwide due to its small size, docile temperament, strong feeding response, resiliency and easy captive care.