Letheobia lumbriciformis (Peters)

(Fig 7 C)

Zanzibar gracile blind-snake

Onychocephalus (Letheobia) lumbriciformis Peters 1874, Mber. Königl. Akad Wiss. Berlin 1874: 377. Type locality: Küste Zanzibar [= Zanzibar coast, Tanzania], collected by J. M. Hildebrandt, syntypes ZMB 8045 & 63440 (orig. ZMB 8045a).

Typhlops lumbriciformis – Boulenger 1893: 54, 1915b: 616; Tornier 1896: 66; Sternfeld 1908b: 242, 1910: 10; Werner 1921: 331; Barbour & Loveridge 1928: 104; Loveridge 1936: 228, 1942: 259, 1957: 245; Moreau & Pakenham 1942: 62; Broadley & Howell 1991: 21.

Typhlops kleebergi Werner 1904, Zool. Anz. 27: 464. Type locality: Usambara, Deutsch-Ostafrika [= Tanzania], holotype ZMB 18088; Werner 1921: 290; Werner 1921: 290; Barbour & Loveridge 1928: 104.

Rhinotyphlops lumbriciformis – Roux-Estève 1974: 221, Fig. 155, 1975: 445; Spawls 1978: 2; Hahn 1980: 32; Pakenham 1983: 21; Meirte 1992: 20; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 82; Spawls et al. 2002: 295; Spawls et al. 2006: 92.

Description. Snout with an angular horizontal edge. Rostral very broad, truncated posteriorly; frontal very broad, subhexagonal, in contact with nasals; supraocular transverse, its lateral apex between nasal and the small ocular, whose lateral apex is wedged between the preocular and the very small subocular; eye not visible; nasal suture asising from second labial; SIP X (N1, P, P, S); scale rows 18-18-18; MD 490–607; vertebrae 333–394; MD/V ratio 1.47–1.61; L/D ratio 43–83. Lightly pigmented with pale brown above, colourless below.

Size. Largest specimen (ZMB 8045 – Zanzibar coast, syntype) 445 mm in total length.

Habitat. Coastal savanna and the dry Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Specimens were plowed up in sisal plantations and secured in gardens and cotton plantations after heavy rain (Loveridge 1936, 1942).

Distribution. Coastal areas of Kenya and northeastern Tanzania, including Zanzibar Island, 0– 55 m (Fig. 10).

Localities. KENYA. Changamwe USNM 43097; Gongoni MCZ 40071; Malindi MCZ 40072-74; Mkonumbi (Loveridge 1936) MCZ 40070; Mombasa NMK 3025; Mtwapa (Spawls 1978); Sokoke Forest MCZ 39951. TANZANIA. Amboni MCZ 48045-47; Kilulu Forest Reserve, Tanga NMZB 11858; Usambara ZMB 18088 (holotype of T. kleebergi); Zanzibar coast ZMB 8045-45a (syntypes); Sansibar & Sansibarküste [Zanzibar] (Tornier 1896); Zanzibar Island (Pakenham 1983) MCZ 46115.