Letheobia uluguruensis (Barbour & Loveridge)

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 : 58

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.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of head of: A. L. uluguruensis (MCZ 23081, paratype – Nyange, Tanzania, after Roux-Estève 1974: Fig. 23); B. L. somalica (MNHN 1904.603, syntype of Typhlops acutirostris Mocquard – Shoa Province, Ethiopia, after Roux-Estève 1974: Fig. 140); C. L. erythraea (NMW 16949 – Gheleb, Eritrea, D. G. Broadley illustration). The lines indicate 1 mm to scale.

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