Afrotyphlops tanganicanus (Laurent)

Broadley, Donald G. & Wallach, Van, 2009, 2255, Zootaxa 2255, pp. 1-100 : 44

Afrotyphlops tanganicanus (Laurent)

( Fig. 8A)

Liwale blind-snake

Typhlops tettensis ? obtusus — (not Peters) Loveridge, 1951: 186.

Typhlops tettensis tettensis — (not Peters) Loveridge, 1955: 181, 1957a: 10, 1957b: 243, 1959: 37 (part, Liwale); Isemonger, 1962: 141, 1968: 81; Welch, 1982: 128; McDiarmid et al., 1999: 102.

Typhlops schmidti tanganicanus Laurent, 1964b , Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 130(6): 418. Type locality: “Liwale, Tanganyika” [= Nachingwea District, Southern Province, Tanzania] (9.767°S, 37.933°E, elevation 470 m), holotype MCZ 57439, collected by C.J.P. Ionides, 11 March–26 April 1958; Marx, 1976: 93; Hahn, 1980: 62.

Typhlops lineolatus tanganicanus — Roux-Estève, 1974: 80, 125, figs. 13.19 & 81, 1975a: 492, fig. 30; Hahn, 1977: 37, 1980: 62 (part); Welch, 1982: 129, 1994: 71; Broadley & Howell, 1991: 21.

Typhlops schmidtii tanganicanus — Hahn, 1977: 37.

Typhlops tanganicanus — Wallach, 1998b: 445.

Rhinotyphlops tanganicanus — Broadley & Wallach, 2000: 167.

Typhlops tanganicus (sic) — Spawls et al., 2002: 291, 2006: 92.

Description. Snout rounded. Rostral oval, truncated behind; frontal crescentic; supraocular oblique, its lateral apex between nasal and preocular; eye near anterior border of ocular; nasal sulcus arising from the first labial; SIP T-II-O (N2, P/O, O, O) or T-X (FMNH 81011); MSR 21–24; MD 352–425; vertebrae 224–247; MB/V ratio 1.56–1.79; L/D ratio 30–44. Scales yellowish mesially, brown peripherally, venter more or less pigmented. Largest specimen (MCZ 52623—Liwale) originally 390 mm, now 382 mm.

Distribution. Southeastern Tanzania, 25–470 m ( Fig. 13).

Localities. TANZANIA. Kilwa MCZ 54509 (paratype of Typhlops schmidti tanganicanus Laurent ); Liwale FMNH 81011 (paratype of Typhlops schmidti tanganicanus Laurent ); MCZ 50066, 52523–25, 55471, 57437–38 (paratypes of Typhlops schmidti tanganicanus Laurent ); MCZ 57439 (holotype of Typhlops schmidti tanganicanus Laurent ).