Letheobia graueri (Sternfeld)

(Fig 6 C)

Grauer’s gracile blind-snake

Typhlops graueri Sternfeld 1912, Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr.-Exped. 1907–1908, 4: 264. Type locality: Urwald hinter den Randbergen am Nordwestufer des [Lake] Tanganyika [= Democratic Republic of Congo], collected by R. Grauer, 1907–1908, holotype ZMB 27161; Boulenger 1915a: 197; Werner 1921: 289; Loveridge 1933: 212, 1942: 258; Laurent 1956a: 78 (part); Witte 1962: 43 (part), 1966: 52, Fig. 7; Broadley & Howell 1991: 21.

Typhlops leptosoma – (not Witte, 1933) Witte 1953: 148 (part, Lubundaye River).

Typhlops kibarae – (part) Witte 1953: 150 (Kabalo).

Typhlops leptosoma polli Laurent 1956 a, Ann. Mus. Roy. Congo Belge, sér. in 8vo, Zool. 48: 79. Type locality: Niemba, Terr. Albertville, Tanganyika [= Democratic Republic of Congo] (05°58’S, 28°24’E, elevation ca. 2000 m), collected by Gérard, 3 June 1918, holotype MRAC 1985.

Typhlops gracilis pollI – Laurent 1960: 18.

Typhlops graveri (sic) – Robb 1966: 677, Fig. 6.

Rhinotyphlops graueri, – Roux-Estève 1974: 227, Fig. 163, 1975: 445; Hahn 1980: 31; Meirte 1992: 21; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 80; Slapeta, Necas & Modry 2000: 105, Figs. 1–2; Spawls et al. 2002: 296; Spawls et al. 2006: 92.

Description. Snout with an angular horizontal edge. Rostral very broad, truncated posteriorly; frontal crescentic, contacting or separated from the nasals; supraocular transverse, the lateral apex wedged between nasal and ocular, which is separated from the subocular by a small temporal; eye not visible; nasal suture arising from first or second labial; SIP X (N1, P, S, S); scale rows 24-24-24; MD 454–622; vertebrae 316–382; MD/V ratio 1.47–1.63; L/D ratio 60–89.

Size. Largest examined (NMK 1973 – Gombe National Park, Tanzania) 400 mm in total length, but Witte (1966) gives the maximum length as 450 mm.

Habitat. Forest and savanna (miombo woodland). Two specimens (MCZ 30034-35) were taken in rice paddies at Ruanda, just east of Ujiji (Loveridge 1933) and in Ujiji specimens were taken beneath rotting debris at base of mango tree and under piles of garden refuse (Loveridge 1942).

Distribution. Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, western Tanzania, Burundi and western Uganda, 750–2000 m (Fig. 10).

Localities. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. Kabalo MRAC 15353; Lubunbaye IRSNB 2057; Niemba MRAC 1985 (holotype of T. leptosoma polli); Nyunzu MRAC 18002-03. TANZANIA. Gombe National Park NMK 1973, 2243, 2245; NMZB 16711; Kasakala NMZB 9623; (Loveridge, 1933) Ujiji MCZ 48051-56; Uvinza MCZ 54812. BURUNDI. Rumonge MRAC 21495-96. UGANDA. Semuliki National Park, Toro Province (Slapeta, Necas & Modry, 2000) ZFMK 63138.