Philothamnus angolensis Bocage, 1882

Ineich, Ivan, LeBreton, Matthew, Lhermitte-Vallarino, Nathaly, Abstract. - The, Laurent Chirio, Oku, Mount & Highlands, Bamenda, 2015, The reptiles of the summits of Mont Oku and the Bamenda Highlands, Cameroon *, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 108) 9 (2), pp. 15-38 : 27-28

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.13270281

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DAE649-EF02-9500-FCA0-FA58C756FD59

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Philothamnus angolensis Bocage, 1882
status

 

Philothamnus angolensis Bocage, 1882 View in CoL (two specimens)

Material: MNHN-RA 1998.0410 ( Mt. Oku , above the village, elev. 2,200 m – tail broken – formerly identified as Philothamnus bequaerti , coll. CamHerp L. Chirio, June 25, 1998) – CamHerp 3749I (Mbiame, 6.190°N and 10.849°E, elev. 1,955 m, coll. CamHerp M. LeBreton and L. Chirio, July 8, 2002) GoogleMaps .

This arboreal snake of wet savanna occupies degraded forests, forest-savanna mosaics, the western Highlands, and altitude savannas like the Sudan savanna in the plains. Herrmann et al. (2006) reported the species up to 2,450 m at Mt. Meletan in the Bamboutos, as well as at Tchabal Mbabo Range. A snake reported from the area as Philothamnus irregularis by Joger (1982) refers to this species ( Hughes 1985: 518; Böhme and Schneider 1987). In East Africa, it occupies various habitats from the sea border up to 2,000 m elevation ( Spawls et al. 2002). This species from Central and Eastern Africa only extends very little west beyond the Cameroon border.

The Mt. Oku specimen deposited in the collections (MNHN-RA 1998.0410) is a female formerly identified as Philothamnus bequaerti but here conservatively considered to correspond to P. angolensis . It measures 565 mm SVL and stubby tail measurement is 201+ mm. There are 15 dorsal scale rows in the middle of the body, 1+164 unkeeled ventral plates, and 79+ subcaudals, also unkeeled. Anal plate is divided. The supralabials (right/ left) are 9 (4–6 touching the eye)/9 (4–6), infralabials 9/9, temporals 1 + 1/1 + 1, preoculars 1/1 and postoculars 2/2. The inside of the mouth is white. Its assignment to P. angolensis is not entirely compatible with the species’ description, however.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Squamata

Family

Colubridae

Genus

Philothamnus

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