Letheobia lumbriciformis (Peters)

Wallach, Van, 2007, A review of East and Central African species of Letheobia Cope, revived from the synonymy of Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, with descriptions of five new species (Serpentes: Typhlopidae), Zootaxa 1515, pp. 31-68 : 54-55

Letheobia lumbriciformis (Peters)

( Fig 7 C)

Zanzibar gracile blind-snake

Onychocephalus (Letheobia) lumbriciformis Peters 1874 , Mber. Königl. Akad Wiss. Berlin 1874: 377. Type locality: Küste Zanzibar [= Zanzibar coast, Tanzania], collected by J. M. Hildebrandt, syntypes ZMB 8045 & 63440 (orig. ZMB 8045a).

Typhlops lumbriciformis – Boulenger 1893: 54, 1915b: 616; Tornier 1896: 66; Sternfeld 1908b: 242, 1910: 10; Werner 1921: 331; Barbour & Loveridge 1928: 104; Loveridge 1936: 228, 1942: 259, 1957: 245; Moreau & Pakenham 1942: 62; Broadley & Howell 1991: 21.

Typhlops kleebergi Werner 1904 , Zool. Anz. 27: 464. Type locality: Usambara, Deutsch-Ostafrika [= Tanzania], holotype ZMB 18088; Werner 1921: 290; Werner 1921: 290; Barbour & Loveridge 1928: 104.

Rhinotyphlops lumbriciformis – Roux-Estève 1974: 221, Fig. 155, 1975: 445; Spawls 1978: 2; Hahn 1980: 32; Pakenham 1983: 21; Meirte 1992: 20; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 82; Spawls et al. 2002: 295; Spawls et al. 2006: 92.

Description. Snout with an angular horizontal edge. Rostral very broad, truncated posteriorly; frontal very broad, subhexagonal, in contact with nasals; supraocular transverse, its lateral apex between nasal and the small ocular, whose lateral apex is wedged between the preocular and the very small subocular; eye not visible; nasal suture asising from second labial; SIP X (N1, P, P, S); scale rows 18-18-18; MD 490–607; vertebrae 333–394; MD/V ratio 1.47–1.61; L/D ratio 43–83. Lightly pigmented with pale brown above, colourless below.

Size. Largest specimen (ZMB 8045 – Zanzibar coast, syntype) 445 mm in total length.

Habitat. Coastal savanna and the dry Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Specimens were plowed up in sisal plantations and secured in gardens and cotton plantations after heavy rain ( Loveridge 1936, 1942).

Distribution. Coastal areas of Kenya and northeastern Tanzania, including Zanzibar Island, 0– 55 m ( Fig. 10 ).

Localities. KENYA. Changamwe USNM 43097; Gongoni MCZ 40071; Malindi MCZ 40072-74; Mkonumbi ( Loveridge 1936) MCZ 40070; Mombasa NMK 3025; Mtwapa ( Spawls 1978); Sokoke Forest MCZ 39951. TANZANIA. Amboni MCZ 48045-47; Kilulu Forest Reserve, Tanga NMZB 11858; Usambara ZMB 18088 (holotype of T. kleebergi ); Zanzibar coast ZMB 8045-45a (syntypes); Sansibar & Sansibarküste [ Zanzibar] ( Tornier 1896); Zanzibar Island ( Pakenham 1983) MCZ 46115.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of: A. L. gracilis (ZMB 44030, holotype – Kitungulu, Zimbabwe, after Witte, 1966: Fig. 5); B. L. sudanensis (MRAC 3232, paratype – Faradje, Democratic Republic of Congo, after Roux- Estève, 1974: Fig. 171); C. L. lumbriciformis (ZMB 8045 A, syntype – Zanzibar coast, after Roux-Estève, 1974: Fig. 155. The lines indicate 1 mm to scale.

FIGURE 10. Distribution of the East African species of Letheobia.