Philothamnus carinatus (Anderson, 1901)

Sánchez-Vialas, Alberto, Calvo-Revuelta, Marta & Riva, Ignacio De La, 2022, Synopsis of the terrestrial Reptiles of Equatorial Guinea, Zootaxa 5202 (1), pp. 1-197 : 77

Philothamnus carinatus (Anderson, 1901)

Figure 18C

Chlorophis carinatus Andersson, 1901: 9 . Type locality: “Mapanja, Cameroon ” and “ Cameroon ”. Restricted to Mapanja by Mertens (1964).

Philothamnus nigrofasciatus Buchholz & Peters, 1875: 199 . Type locality: “Cameruns”.

Philothamnus heterodermus carinatus Andersson, 1901 : Loveridge 1951: 6.

Distribution. This species is widespread from West Africa ( Guinea Konakry) to East Africa ( Kenya) and southward to southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Equatorial Guinea it has been recorded in Bioko at Bococo ( Mertens 1941; Loveridge 1958), Moka ( Mertens 1964a) and Bahía de San Carlos ( Boulenger 1906; Capocaccia 1961a), and in Río Muni at Monte Alén National Park ( Lasso et al. 2002), including Monte Mitra ( Gonwouo & Nsang 2005) ( Map 21B ).

Comments. All the specimens examined by us have 13 scale rows at mid-body. This species was treated by some authors as a subspecies of P. heterodermus ( Loveridge 1958) . However, it has been suggested that P. carinatus could represent a species complex ( Engelbrecht et al. 2019). It is formed by at least two main clades, one ranging across Gabon-western Republic of the Congo and the other occurring at the eastern of Democratic Republic of the Congo ( Engelbrecht et al. 2019). The Philothamnus carinatus species complex is sister to P. heterodermus ( Engelbrecht et al. 2019) .

The specimen recorded from Bahía de San Carlos, Bioko, by Boulenger (1906) was subsequently cited by Loveridge (1958) as P. heterodermus heterodermus and re-identified by Capocaccia (1961a) as P. heterodermus carinatus . Based on the number of scale rows at mid-body (13 scale rows), we follow Capocaccia (1961a) and Mertens (1964) in considering this specimen as P. carinatus .

Specimens examined. Eleven specimens. Río Muni: Miboman, 1985–1986 ( EBD 20927–20930 ) ; Miboman (30 km from Niefang), 25 February 1987 ( EBD 25018, EBD 25020–25021 ) ; Miboman (road to Niefang), 28 July 1987 ( EBD 27548) ; Miboman, 06 September 1986 ( EBD 20792) ; Ayamiken, 01 August 1986 (EBD 25019, EBD 25022) .

Figures

FIGURE 18. From left to right: lateral, dorsal and ventral views of the head of: Hapsidophrys lineatus (A) (MNCN 23815), Hapsidophrys smaragdina (B) (MNCN 22572), and Philothamnus carinatus (C) (EBD 25022). Photos: AS-V.

MAPS 21 A–C. Distribution maps for Equatorial Guinean records of (A) Hapsidophrys smaragdina; (B) Philothamnus carinatus; (C) Philothamnus girardi.