Letheobia scorteccii (Gans & Laurent)

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 : 57-58

Letheobia scorteccii (Gans & Laurent)

( Fig 8 C)

Scortecci’s blind-snake

Typhlops unitaeniatus – (not Peters) Lepri 1911: 318; Scortecci 1930: 15 (part, Mogadiscio).

Typhlops scorteccii Gans & Laurent 1965 , Ann. Mus. Roy. Afr. Cen., Tervuren, (134): 56, Fig. 12 & Pl. 6. Type locality: 10 km south of Afgoi, on the sand dune road to Merca [Marka], Benadir Province, Somali Republic (02°05’N, 45°10’E, elevation 30 m), collected by C. Gans, 25 July 1961, holotype MCZ 74455; Gans & Taub, 1965: 107. Rhinotyphlops scortecciI – Roux-Estève 1974: 246, Fig. 184, 1975: 445; Hahn 1980: 35; Lanza 1983: 219, 1990: 430; Lambert 1985: 66; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 87.

Description. Snout very prominent, with an obtusely angular keratinised edge on rostral; rostral very large, subrectangular, extending far beyond the eye spots, rostral ventrally almost as wide as the head at the level of the nostrils; frontal crescentic, supraocular oblique, its lateral apex between nasal and preocular; eye barely visible beneath the nasal, nasal suture arising from L2; SIP X (N1, P, P, P). Scale rows usually 26-24-24l; MD 311–405. L/D ratio 27–73. Dark to blackish brown dorsally, slightly lighter ventrally, with a bright yellow stripe running from top of head along the anterior half to three-quarters of the back.

Size. Largest specimen (BMNH 1963.420 – Benadir region, Somalia) 275 mm in total length.

Habitat. Somali Acacia-Commiphora bushland and thicket. Most of the type series were taken at a depth of 30 to 60 cm in sand beneath the debris from a long defunct thorn bush. The Mogadiscio specimens were taken by hoeing up grasses in sandy soil during the early morning ( Gans & Laurent 1965).

Distribution. Restricted to a small area round Mogadiscio and Lower Shabeelle in southern Somalia, 0– 100 m ( Fig. 12).

Localities. SOMALIA. Unknown locality NHCL 1536-37, 1550; Afgoi MZUF 24202; 10 km S of Afgoi MCZ 74455 (holotype), 74456-59 (paratypes); Benadir region ( Lepri 1911) BMNH 1963.420; CM 38719 (paratypes); Merka MZUF 29695; Mogadiscio ( Scortecci 1930) MCZ 74460-62 (paratypes); MZUF 2661; MZUT 1753 (2); NHCL 1538-40; Lower Shabeelle MZUF 21977.

Figures

FIGURE 8. The Letheobia unitaeniata complex: dorsal, lateral and ventral views of A. L. unitaeniata (MCZ 48058 – Amboni Estate, Tanzania, after Roux-Estève 1974, Fig. 180); B. L. ataeniata (CAS 151200 – Mareri, Juba River, Somalia, J. Boundy illustration); C. L. scorteccii (MCZ 74455, holotype – Afgoi, Somalia, after Roux-Estève 1974: Fig. 184). The lines indicate 1 mm to scale.