Letheobia uluguruensis (Barbour & Loveridge)

(Fig 9 A)

Uluguru gracile blind-snake

Typhlops uluguruensis Barbour & Loveridge 1928, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harv. 50: 104. Type locality: Nyange, Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania (06°52’S, 37°46’E, elevation 760–850 m), collected by A. Loveridge, 6 October 1926, holotype MCZ 23080; Loveridge 1933: 213, 1957: 244; Roux-Estève 1974: 40, Fig. 23, 1975: 444; Hahn 1980: 75; Broadley & Howell 1991: 20; Meirte 1992: 24; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 123; Burgess et al. 2002: 146; Spawls et al. 2002: 285; Gower et al. 2004: 79; Spawls et al. 2006: 92.

Description. Snout rounded, prominent. Rostral moderate, oval; frontal subhexagonal; supraocular transverse, its lateral apex between preocular and ocular; eye not visible; ocular separated from subocular by two or three postoculars; nasal suture arising from second labial; SIP X (N1, P, S, PO) and SIP II–P (N1, N2, S, S); MSR 22, reduction A–B 2, reduction B–C O; MD 379–416; vertebrae 263–269; MD/V ratio 1.41–1.58; L/D ratio 52–57. Colourless.

Size. Largest specimen (MCZ 23081 – paratype) 245 mm in total length.

Habitat. Two of the type series were taken under the rotting grass roof of a collapsed hut at the edge of the rain forest (Barbour & Loveridge 1928). In May 2002, four were dug out of loose soil in mixed, low intensity agriculture at Tegetero Mission (Gower et al. 2004).

Distribution. The Uluguru Mountains in central Tanzania, 760–1000 m (Fig. 10).

Localities. TANZANIA. Nyange, Uluguru Mts BMNH 1946.1.10.70 (paratype, ex-MCZ 23083); MCZ 23080 (holotype), 23081 (paratype); MRAC 11225 (paratype, ex-MCZ 23082); Tegetero Mission BMNH 2002.49-50.