Crotaphopeltis barotseensis Broadley, 1968

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 : 254

Crotaphopeltis barotseensis Broadley, 1968

Barotse Water Snake ( Fig. 7 , Map 6)

Material: PEM R 23271, Cuanavale River source, Moxico Province, -13.09033° 18.89396°, 1,356 m asl; PEM R 23348, small tributary source lake 6 km SE of Cuito River source, Moxico Province, -12.73675° 18.39310°, 1,446 m asl; PEM R 23323, Cuito River Source Lake, Moxico Province, -12.68935° 18.36012°, 1,435 m asl; PEM R 23466, Quembo River source, Moxico Province, -13.13592° 19.04417°, 1,369 m asl; PEM R 23406, dammed tributary of Cuando River, Moxico Province, -13.06838° 19.34366°, 1,287 m asl; PEM R 23439, Cuando River Source, Moxico Province, -13.00393° 19.12808°, 1,351 m asl; PEM R 27360, Quembo River right tributary (Micongo River) past village, Moxico Province, -13.51877° 19.28487°, 1,248 m asl. Description: Dorsal scales smooth and in 17 rows at midbody; 151–168 ventrals; 29–42 paired subcaudals; 1 preocular; 2 postoculars; 1+2 temporals; 8 supralabials, the 3 rd –5 th entering the orbit; 10 infralabials, the first five in contact with the anterior chin shield; cloacal scale entire. Largest female: 279 + 37 mm ( PEM R 23348); largest male: 407 + 47 mm ( PEM R 27360). Habitat and natural history notes: All specimens were found in grassland associated with large water sources. One specimen had an unidentified Ptychadena in its stomach, while another had frog eggs (possibly Hyperolius ) in its stomach. Comment: These are the first records of this aquatic snake for Angola. Although some minor morphological differences were observed among the newly collected Angolan material, the specimens agree with those observed by Rasmussen (1997). The new material increases the maxium number of ventral scales and provides both the lowest and highest subcaudal scale counts. The holotype is unique in that the upper postocular is excluded from the supraocular by the parietal, while in all the new material the upper postocular is in broad contact with the supraocular. Our collection has already been included in the previous checklist of Angolan snakes ( Branch 2018) and the recent Angolan biodiversity book ( Branch et al. 2019). The closest previous record is the type specimen from Kalabo in Zambia (~ 450 km to the east; Broadley 1968). This material has also been used in a recent phylogenetic study of the genus and C. barotseensis was recovered as the sister lineage to all other Crotaphopeltis ( Engelbrecht et al. 2019) .

Figures

Fig. 7. Crotaphopeltis barotseensis from Cuando River source. Photo by Werner Conradie.