Letheobia sudanensis (Schmidt)

Wallach, Van, 2007, A review of East and Central African species of Letheobia Cope, revived from the synonymy of Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, with descriptions of five new species (Serpentes: Typhlopidae), Zootaxa 1515, pp. 31-68 : 53

Letheobia sudanensis (Schmidt)

( Fig 7 B)

Garamba gracile blind-snake

Typhlops sudanensis Schmidt 1923 , Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 49: 51, Fig. 2 . Type locality: Faradje (contra Schmidt 1923: 4, who erroneously lists the type locality as Garamba), Sudan [= Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo] (03°43’N, 29°42’E, elevation 820 m), collected by H. Lang and J. P. Chapin, November 1911, holotype AMNH 11677; Laurent 1956b: 250; Witte 1962: 42, 1966: 37; Pitman 1974: 64.

Rhinotyphlops sudanensis – Roux-Estève 1974: 233, Fig. 171, 1975: 445; Hahn 1980: 36; Hughes 1983: 354; Meirte 1992: 21; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 87.

Description. Snout with an angular horizontal edge. Rostral very broad, truncated posteriorly; frontal crescentic, in contact with nasals; supraocular transverse, its lateral apex wedged between a very large nasal and a deep ocular, which in turn is wedged between the preocular and subocular; eye not visible; nasal suture arising from second labial; SIP X (N1/N2, P, P, S), one paratype (AMNH 11680) with SIP II (N2, P, P, S) and another paratype (MCZ 13599) with an aberrant SIP III-S (N2, P, P, S) on one side of head; scale rows 26-24-24 (rarely 24-24-24); MD 569–660; vertebrae 366–412; MD/V ratio 1.49–1.62; L/D ratio 57–95. Colourless.

Size. Largest size (Garamba National Park, D.R.C. – Witte 1966) 520 mm in total length.

Habitat. Mosaic of lowland rain forest and secondary grassland (Sudanese savanna). The type series was ”dug by workmen from under a hillock, about 5 feet below the surface of the ground” (H. Lang in Schmidt 1923).

Distribution. Northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, 700–1300 m ( Figs. 10 & 11 ).

Localities. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. Bagbele ( Witte 1962); Faradje AMNH 11677 (holotype), 11678-81 (paratypes); MCZ 13599; MRAC 3232; Garamba AMNH 11682 (paratype); Garamba National Park ( Witte 1962) IRSNB 491, 704, 1271, 2525, 4078, 2209/8; Tuku River, Niangara ( Laurent 1956b) MRAC 2305.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships of Typhlopoidea species groups (after Wallach, 1998 b: Fig. 4).

FIGURE 7. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of: A. L. gracilis (ZMB 44030, holotype – Kitungulu, Zimbabwe, after Witte, 1966: Fig. 5); B. L. sudanensis (MRAC 3232, paratype – Faradje, Democratic Republic of Congo, after Roux- Estève, 1974: Fig. 171); C. L. lumbriciformis (ZMB 8045 A, syntype – Zanzibar coast, after Roux-Estève, 1974: Fig. 155. The lines indicate 1 mm to scale.

FIGURE 10. Distribution of the East African species of Letheobia.

FIGURE 11. Distribution of the north-central African species of Letheobia and L. jubana in north-east Africa (inset, top left).