Leptotyphlops filiformis ( Boulenger, 1899 )

Razzetti, Edoardo, Sindaco, Roberto, Grieco, Cristina, Pella, Francesca, Ziliani, Ugo, Pupin, Fabio, Riservato, Elisa, Pellitteri-Rosa, Daniele, Butikofer, Luca, Suleiman, Ahmed Saeed & Al-Aseily, Badar Awadh, 2011, Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia), Zootaxa 2826, pp. 1-44 : 16

Leptotyphlops filiformis ( Boulenger, 1899)

Glauconia filiformis Boulenger 1899: 7 —Locus typicus: “ Sokotra (Dahamis, 350 feet; Jena-agahan, 1200–2500 feet; and Homhil, 1500–2500 feet)”.

Glauconia filiformis .— Boulenger, 1903: 88, Pl. 11.2.

Leptotyphlops filiformis . — Parker, 1949: 20.

Leptotyphlops filiformis . — Rösler & Wranik, 2006a: 126.

Leptotyphlops cf. filiformis .— Rösler & Wranik, 2006a: 127.

Myriopholis filiformis . — Adalsteinsson, Branch, Trape, Vitt & Hedges, 2009: 11, 28, 38.

This rare worm snake has been previously reported from only few localities in the central and southern part of the island. We have only been able to collect two specimens at the end of January 2009 in a locality at low altitude situated in the western part of the island.

As stated by Schätti & Desvoignes (1999) the drawings in the paper by Hahn (1978) are quite misleading; these drawings were reproduced by Rösler & Wranik (2003: 144). Rösler & Wranik (2006a) compared the lectotype of the species to few specimens held in the collections of the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (Bonn) and noted that one specimen presented a larger total length, higher number of dorsal scales and smaller diameter at midbody.

Habitat. We found two specimens under palm leaves on rough soil in a palm grove.

Original data. Fig. 27. Qeysoh.

Bibliographic data. Boulenger (1899), Steindachner (1903), Rösler & Wranik (2006a), Parker (1949).

General distribution. Endemic to Socotra Island.

Remarks. Adalsteinsson et al. (2009) “ provisionally assigned [the worm snakes of Socotra] to [the new genus] Myriopholis , although their isolation on this Gondwana fragment may indicate deeper divergence ” but these authors never analyzed any Leptotyphlops from Socotra and based their conclusion only on the morphological data by Rösler & Wranik (2006a). In the absence of genetic evidence and in order to avoid taxonomic instabilty, we prefer to maintain the Socotran worm snakes in the genus Leptotyphlops pending further studies on Socotran specimens too.