Leptotyphlops braccianii (Scortecci)

Published, First, 2007, A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae), Zootaxa 1408, pp. 1-78 : 26-27

Leptotyphlops braccianii (Scortecci) ( Plate 8 , Fig. 2)

Scortecci’s worm-snake

Glauconia cairi — Flower, 1900: 968; Boulenger, 1906: 441 (part).

Glauconia braccianii Scortecci, 1928 , Atti. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., Milano , 67: 294, fig. 3. Type locality: Adi Ugri, Eritrea (14°53’N, 38°49’E, 1900 m), holotype MSNM 3351 (formerly MSNM 1917), collected by G. F. Turati; Scortecci, 1930: 199.

Glauconia variabilis Scortecci, 1928 , Atti. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., Milano, 67: 295, fig. 4. Type locality: Adi Ugri, Eritrea (14°53’N, 38°49’E, 1900 m), holotype MSNM 3348b (formerly MSNM 1915b), collected by G. F. Turati; Wallach & Lanza, 2004: 85.

Glauconia fiechteri Scortecci, 1929 , Atti. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., Milano, 68: 266 (part). Type locality: Villabruzzi, Giohar, Somalia (02°46’N, 45°31’E, 100 m), paralectotype MSNM 583 (formerly MSNM 2032b), collected by U. Fiechter, April 1929; Scortecci, 1930b: 15; Wallach & Lanza 2004: 85.

Leptotyphlops fiechteri — Parker, 1932: 219, 1949: 20; Loveridge, 1957: 247; Spawls, 1978: 3.

Leptotyphlops braccianii — Parker, 1949: 21; Hahn, 1980: 9; Wallach & Lanza 2004: 83.

Leptotyphlops variabilis — Parker, 1949: 21; Hahn, 1980: 28; McDiarmid et al., 1999: 36.

Leptotyphlops cairi — Loveridge, 1956: 42 (part, Yei & Torit); Largen & Rasmussen, 1993: 324 (part, 9 km E of Wachile & Agordat); Largen, 1997: 87 (part, Agordat); Trape, 2002: 56, figs. 10B–C.

Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — Hahn, 1978: 482.

Leptotyphlops longicaudus — Hahn, 1980: 19 (part).

Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus macrorhynchus — Lanza 1983: 220; Hahn & Wallach, 1998: 53.

Leptotyphlops longicaudatus (sic) – Lambert, 1985: 66 (part).

Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — Largen & Rasmussen, 1993: 324 (part, Gambela); Largen, 1997: 87; McDiarmid et al., 1999: 35.

Diagnosis. Close to Leptotyphlops cairi , distinguished by its low number of middorsal scales (277–305 vs 322–370), occipitals usually fused (usually separate in L. cairi ), small size (largest 144 mm in total length, whereas L. cairi attains a length of 253 mm). Skull with a large frontoparietal foramen like L. cairi .

Description. Body cylindrical, with head broadened and flattened, distinct from neck, the moderate tail tapers to a small downturned terminal spine.

Snout rounded, rostral moderate (0.30–0.40 head width, mean = 0.36), much wider than nasals and extending back to level of eyes, with distinct preoral groove ventrally. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril nearer rostral than supralabial along nasal suture), small anterior supralabial that is less than half as tall as the infranasal with width along lip 1.5 times that of inranasal, large ocular with small eyespot near upper anterior edge, and moderate posterior supralabial. Supraoculars about as long as wide, anteriorly wedged between upper nasal and ocular, posteriorly wedged between the subequal hexagonal frontal and postfrontal, which are smaller than the interparietal and interoccipital. Parietals transverse, subequal in size to the fused occipitals (which are sometimes not fused), in contact with the posterior supralabials. Temporal single. No mental, five infralabials.

Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales, reducing to 10 rows on the tail. Total middorsals 277–305; subcaudals 28–33.

Total length/tail ratio 10.7–13.7; total length/diameter ratio 63–111.

Middorsal five to eleven (usually seven) scale rows brown to pale brown or tan, venter pale yellow, cream or white.

Size. Largest specimens ( LIVM 1997.118 .1 — Gambela, Ethiopia) 131 + 13 = 144 mm and ( MZUF 2585 — Belet Uen , Somalia) 133.5 + 10.5 = 144 mm ..

Habitat. The type came from Afromontane vegetation in northern Eritrea . Others were from Sahel Acacia wooded grassland in Eritrea and the Upper Nile basin. In the Sudan , Sudanian woodland with abundant Isoberlinia in Equatoria Province , undifferentiated woodland in Darfur Province and western Ethiopia and in Acacia-Commiphora deciduous bushland and thicket in southern Ethiopia.

Distribution. Eritrea, southern Sudan, western and southern Ethiopia, southern Somalia, south to the Tana River in Kenya, 100–1900 m ( Plate 5 ).

Localities. ERITREA. Adi Ugri MSNM 3348a–b, 3351; Agordat MZUT 1273; Keren (Cheren) MSNM 3350, 3352a–d. SUDAN. Nyala, Darfur Province BMNH 1980.262; Rumbek, Bahr-el-Ghazel Province ZFMK 34537; Torit, Equatoria Province FMNH 62343, MCZ 53330–1; Yei District, Equatoria Province MCZ 52190. ETHIOPIA. BMNH 1977.2248– 9 km E of Wachile; LIVM 1997.118.1 Gambela. SOMALIA. Afgoi MZUT 1268; Belet Uen MZUF 2585; Bender Cassim MZUF 15628; Giohar MSNM 583; Mogadiscio MZUT 1266 (3). KENYA. Peccatoni MCZ 40089.

Figures

PLATE 5. Leptotyphlops. Distribution of the Leptotyphlops parkeri, L. reticulatus, L. longicaudus and L. nigricans species groups in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia.

PLATE 8. Figure 1. Leptotyphlops cairi. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of SK 2124 — Siwa Oasis, Egypt, after Kramer & Schnurrenberger (1963) [as Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus]. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 2. Leptotyphlops braccianii. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of the holotype of G. variabilis, MSNM 3348b — Adi Ugri, Eritrea, after Scortecci (1928). Figure 3. Leptotyphlops ionidesi sp. nov. Dorsal and lateral views of the head of the holotype, MCZ 57440 — Liwale, Tanzania. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 4. Leptotyphlops tanae sp. nov. Dorsal and lateral views of the head of the holotype, MCZ 40099 — Ngatana, Kenya. The line represents 1 mm to scale.