Cylindrophis ruffus (Laurenti, 1768)

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 185-187

Cylindrophis ruffus (Laurenti, 1768) — Native.

Anguis ruffa Laurenti, 1768: 71 . Type material: None designated; type material originally at RMNH apparently lost, according to Iskandar & Colijn (2002: 24) and Amarasinghe et al. (2015: 36). Type locality: “[h]abitat Surinami” (= Suriname; in error); later designated as “ Java ”, Indonesia by H. Boie in F. Boie (1827: 512); later designated as “ Java ”, Indonesia and “[p]ossible type locality is Batavia (now Jakarta) in Indonesia (not Batavia in Suriname)” by Amarasinghe et al. (2015: 41); later restricted to “northwestern Java ”, Indonesia by Kieckbusch et al. (2016: 10).

Red-tailed Pipe Snake ( Figure 21C )

Singapore records.

Cylindrophis rufus — Cantor, 1847b: 900 (“turned up with the earth in a garden at Singapore belonging to Montgomerie”).— Cantor, 1847c: 1069, 1076.— Ģnther, 1864: xvii, 179.— Dennys, 1880a: 3.— Dennys, 1880b: 2.— Dennys, 1881b: 2.— Blanford, 1881: 215.—Sclater, 1891a: 6.— Boulenger, 1893: 135.— Flower, 1896: 877 (Tanglin [= TF]).— Hanitsch, 1898: 19.— Flower, 1899: 656.— Ridley, 1899: 207.— Hanitsch, 1912b: 15.— de Rooij, 1917: 36.—Sworder, 1923: 59.— Buddle, 1929: 40 (Sembawang Naval Base [= SML]).— Mahendra, 1936: 231.—D.S. Johnson, 1964: 27.—F.L.K. Lim & M.T.-M. Lee, 1989: 32, 117 ( Singapore Science Centre).—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 53.—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 51, 145.—K.K.P. Lim, 1993b: 1 (Choa Chu Kang Road [CCK]).—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.—Stuebing, 1994: 968.—K. Lim et al., 1995: 13 (Island Country Club Road [SICC]).— Cross, 2020a: 1 (Bukit Timah/Dunearn Road; Changi).— Cross, 2020h: 1, 3 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020i: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020k: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020l: 1 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).— Cross, 2020n: 1, 7 (Bukit Timah/Dunearn Road; Changi; Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).

Cylindrophis rufa — Girard, 1858b: 129.— Ģnther, 1858b: 281.—F. M̧ller, 1878: 589, 754.

Cylindrophis rufus rufus — de Haas, 1950: 527.

Cylindrophis ruffus ruffus — David & Vogel, 1996: 37.— de Lang & Vogel, 2005: 187.

Cylindrophis ruffus — Manthey & Grossmann, 1997: 413.—Chan-ard et al., 1999: 39.—Orlov et al., 2000: 69.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 24.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 145.— Anonymous, 2003: 92 (Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve).—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 160.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2008: 264.—P.K.L. Ng et al., 2011: 416.—Wallach et al., 2014: 204.—Chan-ard et al., 2015: 151.— Kieckbusch et al., 2016: 11.— de Lang, 2017: 233.— Kieckbusch et al., 2018: 250 (Bukit Timah Road; Sembawang Naval Base; University of Malaya Dunearn Hostel [= College Green]).— Mader & Mecke, 2018: 417 ( Singapore Botanic Gardens).—O’Shea, 2018: 75.—K.K.P. Lim et al., 2019: 279–281.— Bernstein et al., 2020: 536, 537, 557 (Bukit Timah Road; Sembawang Naval Base; University of Malaya Dunearn Hostel [= College Green]).— Charlton, 2020: 59.—I.S. Law et al., 2020: 166.—K.K.P. Lim, 2020: 4 (Bukit Timah/Dunearn Road; Changi; Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).—C. Choong & J.Y. Chan, 2022: 1 (Mandai Road; Mandai Lake Road).

Cylindrophis mirzae Amarasinghe et al., 2015: 38 , 44, 45.—M.A.H. Chua, 2015c: 58.

? Cylindrophis rufus — Cross, 2020g: 3 (Sime Road Camp [= SICC]).

Remarks. Amarasinghe et al. (2015) split C. ruffus into four species based on morphological differences, with the Singapore populations being redescribed as C. mirzae ( Amarasinghe et al. 2015) . Kieckbusch et al. (2016) re-examined the material referred to by Amarasinghe et al. (2015) and concluded that C. mirzae was not a valid species, electing to synonymise it with C. ruffus . In particular, Kieckbusch et al. (2016) clarified that that individuals from Singapore have 19 and 21 dorsal scale rows, and not 21 as stipulated by Amarasinghe et al. (2015), which was given as a distinguishing character of C. mirzae . Kieckbusch et al. (2016) also mentioned that colouration is not a useful diagnostic character of C. ruffus .

Cylindrophis ruffus was first reported in Singapore by Cantor (1847b) who received a specimen that was dug up in Montgomerie’s garden (the second species of herpetofauna after Ichthyophis singaporensis in 1843 to be dug up from Montgomerie’s garden [ Cantor 1847c]). However, Eydoux collected the first specimen (MNHN-RA-0.3279), which is the holotype of C. mirzae , in 1830 during his voyage on La Favorite ( Amarasinghe et al. 2015; Lim et al. 2019). Cylindrophis ruffus was reported far more frequently historically than in modern times. Girard (1858b), Ģnther (1858b), M̧ller (1878), Blanford (1881), Sclater (1891a), Boulenger (1893), and Hanitsch (1912b) all reported specimens that they examined. Early field collected specimens include Flower (1896) who collected one specimen at Tanglin, four specimens collected at SNB by Buddle (1929), and a few specimens collected by Cross in 1944 and 1945 (2020n). Sworder (1923) classified C. ruffus as common, but nowadays it is extremely rare. After not being reported for 44 years ( Table 2 ), C. ruffus has only been reported six times since then. The first is of a specimen found at Singapore Science Centre (Lim & Lee 1989), followed by a roadkill on Choa Chu Kang Road from 1993 ( Lim 1993b), and another roadkill on Island Club Country Road on 24 June 1995 (Lim et al. 1995). It is also listed to occur in SBWR, but no details on observations were provided ( Anonymous 2003). However, the individual illustrated in Figure 21C was photographed at SBWR on 14 May 2003 (N. Baker pers. comm.). The last four, and more recent records include one shared on the Nature Society Facebook page seen crossing Sembawang Park Connector on 30 October 2021 (Nang 2021), a roadkill on Mandai Road on 24 December 2020, a live individual found at a construction site along Mandai Lake Road on 18 March 2021, and another roadkill at Neo Tiew Lane 2 from around 2012 that went unreported but was published on the Singapore Wild Animals website ( Choong & Chan 2022). Two additional unreported records were parts of a carcass of one found in a stream along Yishun Ave 1 on 7 February 2020 (C. Tan pers. comm.) and two males recorded on video from a camera trap at Kranji engaged in male-male combat on 9 November 2021 (J. Tan pers. comm.). At LKCNHM, there are numerous museum specimens that have been collected over the years, as late as 2018, but have never been reported. Nonetheless, C. ruffus is quite rare in Singapore ( Baker & Lim 2012).

Occurrence. Wide-ranging. Rare.

Singapore conservation status. Vulnerable.

Conservation priority. Highest.

IUCN conservation status. Least Concern [2012].

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Singapore (no locality) : BMNH 1847.2 .9.23 (no date) , BMNH 1860.3 .19.1210 (no date) , BMNH 1880.9 .10.23 (no date) , BMNH 1938.9 .8.1 (no date) , ZRC.2.3025 (no date), ZRC.2.3023 (21-Oct-1898) , ZRC.2.3018 (1899), ZRC.2.3024 (May-1900) , ZRC.2.3021 (Nov-1912) , ZRC.2.3017 (1914), ZRC.2.3028 (Sep-1914) , ZRC.2.3016 (Aug-1921) , ZRC.2.3019 (21-Oct-1922) , ZRC.2.3020 (28-Aug-1953) ; Botanic Gardens: ZRC.2.3027 (1896); Bukit Timah Road : ZRC.2.3022 (Sep-1912) ; Geylang : ZRC.2.5902 (31-Jan-1934) ; Island Club Road [ SICC] : ZRC.2.6907 (05-May-2010) ; Katong : ZRC.2.3026 (06-Nov-1922) ; Mandai Track 15 : ZRC.2.6788 (19-Oct-2008) ; Old Upper Thomson Road : ZRC.2.6916 (19-Aug-2010) , ZRC.2.7309 (23-Jun-2018) ; Naval Base [Sembawang] : ZRC.2.3029 (18-Apr-1967) ; Sime Road Forest : ZRC.2.7101 (29-May-2015) ; Upper Seletar Reservoir Road : ZRC.2.6984 (23-Aug-2012) .

Additional Singapore museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): CAS, CUMV, FMNH, MNHN, NMW, SAMA, USNM, ZMH; Dunearn Road Hostel [= College Green]: MCZ; University of Malaya [= NUS Bukit Timah]: BPBM.

Singapore localities. Bukit Timah Road*—Changi—Choa Chu Kang—College Green*—Geylang*—Kranji— Mandai Lake Road—Mandai Track 15—National University of Singapore Bukit Timah Campus*—Old Upper Thomson Road—Sembcorp Marine Ltd.*—Sime Road Forest—Singapore Botanic Gardens*— Singapore Island Country Club—Singapore Science Centre—Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve—Tyersall Forest—Upper Seletar Reservoir Road—Yishun Avenue 1.

Figures

FIGURE 21. A) Xenochrophis vittatus, B) Sibynophis melanocephalus, C) Cylindrophis ruffus, D) Aipysurus eydouxii, E) Aipysurus eydouxii, F) Bungarus fasciatus, G) Calliophis bivirgatus, and H) Calliophis gracilis. Photographs by: Thio Hui Bing [A], Alex Figueroa [B], Nick Baker [C], Kelvin K.P. Lim [D], Ria Tan [E], Law Ing Sind [F], Mary-Ruth Low [G], and Evan S.H. Quah [H].