Philothamnus ornatus Bocage, 1872

Conradie, Werner, Baptista, Ninda L., Verburgt, Luke, Keates, Chad, Harvey, James, Júlio, Timóteo & Neef, Götz, 2021, Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Angolan Okavango-Cuando-Zambezi river drainages. Part 1: Serpentes (snakes), Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 292) 15 (2), pp. 244-278 : 259

Philothamnus ornatus Bocage, 1872

Ornate Green Snake ( Fig. 15 , Map 13)

Material: PEM R 23284–5, Cuanavale River source lake, Moxico Province, -13.09330° 18.89396°, 1,357 m asl; PEM R 27376, Cuanavale River source lake, Moxico Province, -13.09052° 18.8939°, 1,357 m asl; PEM R 23441–3, INBAC: WC-4806, Cuando River Source Trap 1, Moxico Province, -13.00393° 19.12808°, 1,351 m asl; PEM R 23430–2, Cuando River Source Trap 2, Moxico Province, -13.00426° 19.12719°, 1,350 m asl; PEMR 23330, CuitoRiverSourceLake, MoxicoProvince, -12.68935° 18.36012°, 1,435 m asl. Description: Dorsal scales smooth and in 15 rows at midbody; 146–159 smooth ventrals; 97–112 paired subcaudals; 1 preocular; 2 postoculars; temporals 1+1; supralabials 8, with 3 rd –5 th entering the orbit; 10 infralabials, the first five in contact with the anterior chin shield; cloacal scale divided. Largest female: 496 + 238 mm ( PEM R 23285); largest male: 412 + 126 mm ( PEM R 23431). Habitat and natural history notes: All specimens were found near waterbodies surrounded by grassland and mature Miombo woodland. This species lacks ventral keeling and has never been observed climbing, unlike sympatric P. heterolepidotus . The stomachs of four snakes contained frogs of the genera Ptychadena and Hyperolius . Comment: Philothamnus ornatus was described by Bocage (1872) from two specimens collected at Huíla. Although subsequently recorded from Zambia and Zimbabwe ( Broadley 1971; Broadley et al. 2003) and recently from Botswana (iNaturalist 35448603), it is known in Angola from only 10 localities ( Marques et al. 2018). The species was recently documented for the first time from the Cuito River basin ( Conradie et al. 2016), and here we document it from three more localities: Cuito River source, Cuanavale River source, and Cuando River source. These collections fill the gap between the records from western Angola and the Zambian populations.

Figures

Fig. 15. Philothamnus ornatus from Cuito River source. Photo by Werner Conradie.