Leptotyphlops cairi (Duméril & Bibron)

Published, First, 2007, A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae), Zootaxa 1408, pp. 1-78 : 24-26

Leptotyphlops cairi (Duméril & Bibron) ( Plate 8 , Fig. 1)

Egyptian worm snake

Stenostoma cairi Duméril & Bibron, 1844 , Erpétol. Gén., 6: 323. Type locality: near Cairo, Al Qahirah Governorate, Egypt (30°03’N, 31°15’E, 200 m), holotype MNHN 3231, collected by Birr; Duméril & Duméril, 1851: 207; Duméril, 1853: 423.

Stenostoma fitzingeri Jan, 1861 , Arch. Zool. Anat. Fisiol., 1: 189. Type locality: Isle of Rhodes , Nile River near Cairo, Egypt, holotype, previously MSNM, now destroyed; Jan & Sordelli, 1861: livr. 2, pls. 5 & 6, fig. 6.

Glauconia cairi — Boulenger, 1890: 92, 1906: 441 (part, Wagga), 1915c: 643 (part), 1920: 299; Anderson, 1896: 106, 1898: 233, text fig. 9, pl. 32, fig. 1; Werner, 1907: 42, 1917 a: 208, 1919: 501 (part, Khartoum), 1928: 77 (Atrun & Elephantine Island); Andersson, 1916: 23 (Omdurman).

Glauconia fitzingeri — Boulenger, 1893: 66.

Leptotyphlops cairi — Parker, 1932a: 362, 1949: 19 (part, Wagar); Flower, 1933: 803; Loveridge, 1956: 42 (part, Sennar); Schmidt & Marx, 1957: 23 (part); Marx, 1968: 28 (part); Hahn, 1978: 479, 1980: 10; Lanza, 1983: 220, 1990: 431 (part); Werner, 1983: 29; Abdeen et al., 1991a: 417, 1991b: 439, figs. 1–3, 1991c: 457, figs. 1–3; Meirte, 1992: 14; Stein & Helmy, 1994: 17 (Abu Rawash & Suez); Saleh, 1997: 131 (part), pl. 75; Hahn & Wallach, 1998: 56; Trape, 2002: 56, figs. 6–7; Baha el Din, 2006: 219, figs. A–B [p. 221], pl. 81.

Leptotyphlops macrorynchus bilmaensis (sic) Angel, 1936, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 61: 274. Type locality: Oasis of Bilma, Niger (18°40’N, 12°56’E, elevation 400 m), syntypes MNHN 1936.99–102, collected by H. Lhote; Kramer & Schnurrenberger, 1963: 478, fig. 3.

Leptotyphlops (Glauconia) cairi — Kamal et al., 1966: 162.

Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus bilmaensis — Hahn, 1980: 20.

Leptotyphlops fitzingeri — Hahn, 1980: 14; McDiarmid et al., 1999: 30.

Diagnosis. Snout rounded in lateral view, but with a weak preoral concavity on the rostral; interparietal occasionally longitudinally divided; occipitals usually not fused. Middorsals 322–370; subcaudals 28–35; total length/diameter ratio 59–117; total length/tail length ratio 12.3–16.2. Skull with a large frontoparietal foramen.

Description. Body cylindrical, with head slightly depressed, the moderate tail tapers to a small downturned terminal spine.

Snout rounded in dorsal profile, rostral moderate (0.36–0.46 head width, mean = 0.41), wider than nasals and barely reaching level of eyes. Lateral snout profile bluntly projecting beyond lower lip with an incipient beak, ventral rostral with a moderate preoral groove. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril midway between rostral and supraocular along nasal suture), small anterior supralabial that is less than half as tall as infranasal, below level of nostril, and equal in width to it along lip, large ocular with eye placed centrally in upper half, and moderate posterior supralabial. Supraoculars about as long as wide, anteriorly wedged between supranasal and ocular, posteriorly wedged between the subequal hexagonal frontal and postfrontal, which are a little smaller than the interparietal and interoccipital. Parietals transverse, in contact with the posterior supralabials. Occipitals variable, usually fused but thinner and narrower than parietals. Temporal single. No mental, five infralabials. Tongue lacking lingual papillae.

Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales, reducing to 10 rows on the tail. Middorsals 322–370; subcaudals 28–35.

Total length/diameter ratio 59–117; total length/tail length ratio 12.3–16.2.

Three to seven dorsal scale rows pigmented pale brown or pinkish-brown (scales cream with brown stippling), venter cream to pale yellow.

Everted hemipenis of CAS 18145 (SVL 134.5 mm, tail 15 mm, 37 subcaudals) smooth and nude, filiform like Psammophis with bulbous base and narrow, slightly tapering organ, three subcaudals in length, sulcus simple, extending along ventral surface of organ.

Size. Largest southern specimen ( BMNH 1905.11 .7.41 — Wagar, Somalia) 183 mm, but attaining a maximum length of 254 mm in Egypt ( FMNH 129894 — Cairo) .

Habitat. This species inhabits moist cultivated areas, being replaced by Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus in adjacent sandy desert areas, and is found in close proximity to L. macrorhynchus in the lower Nile Valley near Cairo, Egypt ( Baha el Din, 2006).

Distribution. Northern Africa, from Mauritania to Egypt (along the Nile and at Siwa Oasis) and Sudan, with relict populations in Somalia, 0–400 m ( Plate 5 ).

Localities. SUDAN. Sennar MCZ 25872; NMW 15456; Umm Durman NHMG 1396; Wadi Halfa NMW 17004:1–3. SOMALIA. Juba Sugar Project MZUF 27192; Wagar, Golis Mts BMNH 1905.11.7.41.

Discussion. Leptotyphlops cairi shows a relict distribution in the Horn of Africa. It is replaced in Eritrea, southern Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia and southern Somalia by L. braccianii and at low altitudes along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea and in eastern Ethiopia by L. erythraeus .

Figures

PLATE 5. Leptotyphlops. Distribution of the Leptotyphlops parkeri, L. reticulatus, L. longicaudus and L. nigricans species groups in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia.

PLATE 8. Figure 1. Leptotyphlops cairi. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of SK 2124 — Siwa Oasis, Egypt, after Kramer & Schnurrenberger (1963) [as Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus]. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 2. Leptotyphlops braccianii. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of the holotype of G. variabilis, MSNM 3348b — Adi Ugri, Eritrea, after Scortecci (1928). Figure 3. Leptotyphlops ionidesi sp. nov. Dorsal and lateral views of the head of the holotype, MCZ 57440 — Liwale, Tanzania. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 4. Leptotyphlops tanae sp. nov. Dorsal and lateral views of the head of the holotype, MCZ 40099 — Ngatana, Kenya. The line represents 1 mm to scale.