Madatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014

Pyron, Robert Alexander & Wallach, Van, 2014, Systematics of the blindsnakes (Serpentes: Scolecophidia: Typhlopoidea) based on molecular and morphological evidence, Zootaxa 3829 (1), pp. 1-81 : 53

Madatyphlops Hedges, Marion, Lipp, Marin & Vidal, 2014

Type species. Onychocephalus arenarius Grandidier, 1872

Species content. Madatyphlops andasibensis , Mad. arenarius , Mad. boettgeri, Mad. calabresii, Mad. comorensis, Mad. cuneirostris, Mad. decorsei, Mad. leucocephalus, Mad. madagascariensis, Mad. mucronatus, Mad. ocularis, Mad. platyrhynchus , and Mad. rajeryi .

Diagnosis. Madatyphlops can be distinguished from all other typhlopoids by the combination of the following characters: small- to large-sized (total length 62–600 mm), stout- to slender-bodied (length/width ratio 17–85) snakes with 20–28 scale rows (with reduction, except in Mad. calabresii ), 196–580 total middorsals, short to moderate tail (1.2–3.0% total length) with 7–18 subcaudals (length/width ratio 0.7–2.6), and apical spine small to minute. Dorsal and lateral head profiles rounded, moderate rostral (0.29–0.54 head width), inferior nasal suture in contact with second supralabial, preocular in contact with second and third supralabials, eye small to moderate with distinct pupil, T-III or T-V SIP, and postoculars 2–3. Lateral tongue papillae present; left lung absent, tracheal, cardiac and right lungs normally multicameral (latter unicameral in continental African species); testes segmented or unsegmented; hemipenis eversible, lacking retrocloacal sacs; and rectal caecum usually large (0.5–5.0% SVL). Coloration brown to black dorsally with lighter venter (light brown to yellow) or entirely pink (pigmentless) in a few species (yellow in preservative).

Phylogenetic definition. Includes the MRCA of Madatyphlops arenarius and Mad. andasibensis and all descendants thereof, and all species more closely related to Mad. arenarius than to the type species of the 15 other typhlopid genera listed here.

Etymology. Name refers to the primarily Malagasy distribution of the species, similar to the skink genus Madascincus (see Whiting et al. 2004).

Distribution. Most species are endemic to Madagascar (Table 1), though a few are found in northeastern Africa ( Madatyphlops calabresii, Mad. cuneirostris, Mad. leucocephalus , and Mad. platyrhynchus ), and one in the Comoro Islands (Mad. comorensis ).

Remarks. Some species were placed in Afrotyphlops ( Madatyphlops calabresii, Mad. comorensis, Mad. cuneirostris , and Mad. platyrhynchus ) and Rhinotyphlops (Mad. leucocephalus ) by Hedges et al. (2014), but are likely allied with Madatyphlops based on several characters. These include a T-V SIP (Mad. calabresii, Mad. cuneirostris , and Mad. leucocephalus ) or a T-III SIP (Mad. comoroensis and Mad. platyrhynchus ), both of which are common in Madatyphlopinae but otherwise unknown in Afrotyphlopinae (Table 2). Also, the supralabials of these species increase in size posteriorly, instead of being low and flat as in Afrotyphlops and Rhinotyphlops . At least five new undescribed species are known from Madagascar (Wallach unpubl. data) based on new UMMZ material.