Afrotyphlops schlegellii petersii (Bocage, 1873)

Parrinha, Diogo, Calado, Francisco M. G., Marques, Mariana P., Bauer, Aaron M. & Ceríaco, Luis M. P., 2025, Echoes of a lost museum: Revision of the herpetological collections sent by Barbosa du Bocage from the Lisbon Museum to the British Museum of Natural History, Vertebrate Zoology 75, pp. 353-404 : 353-404

Afrotyphlops schlegellii petersii (Bocage, 1873)

Specimens.

Angola: Quissange : BMNH 1893.12.27.9 –10 .

Comments.

Bocage (1886 c) described Typhlops ( Onychocephalus) humbo based on two specimens collected by Anchieta in Quissange and later mentioned additional material from the same locality and collector sent in 1890 ( Bocage 1895 a). Bocage presented two specimens of Typhlops from Quissange to the British Museum in 1893, one of which was reported by Boulenger (1896) as Typhlops humbo and the other as Thyphlops mucruso . None of the specimens were considered by Boulenger (1896) to be types, suggesting they were part of the material sent by Anchieta in 1890. Broadley and Wallach (2009) referred Bocage’s humbo to the synonym of Afrotyphlops schlegellii , including the two specimens from Quissange presented by Bocage to the British Museum. Although further research is needed to stabilize the taxonomy of the Afrotyphlops schlegellii species complex, some authors recognize petersii as a subspecies from Angola and Namibia ( Marques et al. 2024).