Leptotyphlops ionidesi, Published, 2007

Published, First, 2007, A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae), Zootaxa 1408, pp. 1-78 : 27-28

Leptotyphlops ionidesi sp. nov. ( Plate 8 , Fig. 3)

Ionides' worm snake

Leptotyphlops longicaudus — Loveridge, 1942: 260 (Mbanja), 1951: 187 (Liwale), 1957: 246 (part); Broadley, 1971: 28; Broadley & Watson, 1976: 487 (part); Hahn, 1980: 19 (part); McDiarmid et al., 1999: 34 (part); Spawls et al, 2002: 304 (part).

Holotype. MCZ 57440 Liwale , Southern Province, Tanzania (09°47’S, 38°00’E, elevation 600 m), collected by C. J. P. Ionides (field no. 8333), 27 April 1958.

Paratypes. MCZ 50069, a male from Liwale , Tanzania, collected by C. J. P. Ionides, 11 July 1948 ; MCZ 59175 Liwale , Tanzania, collected by C. J. P. Ionides, 3 June 1958 ; MCZ 18179 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (06°51’S, 30°18’E), collected by A. Loveridge, 4 December 1922 ; MCZ 18180–81 Lumbo , Nampula Province, Mozambique (15°02’S, 40°41’E, near sea level), collected by A. Loveridge, 1 August 1918 ; MCZ 48043–4 Mbanja , Lindi District, Tanzania (9°24’S, 39°45’E, 0–130 m), collected by A. Loveridge, 27 April 1939 ; BMNH 1966.908 & 1966.958 Newala , Tanzania (10°59’S, 39°18’E), collected by C.J.P. Ionides ; BMNH 1984.743 Kilwa District , Lindi Region, Tanzania, collected by C.J.P. Ionides, 10 January 1949 ; NMZB-UM 24638 Vinthukutu Forest Reserve , Malawi (10°23’S, 34°11’E), collected by D.G. Broadley, 23 November 1970 .

Diagnosis. A member of the Leptotyphlops longicaudus species group, resembling L. longicaudus but distinguished by a narrower rostral, small anterior supralabial, fewer subcaudals, absence of a beak and smaller size. It agrees in size with L. braccianii , but differs in its much narrower rostral and higher subcaudal counts. Skull with a large frontoparietal foramen like L. cairi .

Etymology. Named to commemorate C.J.P. Ionides, who collected the holotype and series of many other fossorial reptiles in Tanzania.

Description (paratype variations in parentheses). Body cylindrical, head narrower than neck and body, short thick tail that abruptly tapers to a thorn-like terminal spine.

Snout rounded, rostral narrow (0.33–0.40 head width, mean = 0.36), wider than nasals and extending to a line connecting anterior edge of eyes, a weak preoral groove present ventrally. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril midway between rostral and supralabial along nasal suture), small anterior supralabial not reaching level of nostril, half as tall as infranasal and equal in width to it along lip, large ocular with eye near anterior edge, contacting postnasal, and moderate posterior supralabial. Supraoculars oblique, subequal to frontal, which is twice as broad as deep, subequal to postfrontal, and smaller than interoccipital and interparietal, which are subequal in size. Parietals transverse, equal in size to the enlarged occipitals, in contact with posterior supralabial. (MCZ 50069 has the frontal enlarged laterally at the expense of the right supraocular, the parietals converge and almost meet behind the postfrontal, the occipitals meet at a point behind two juxtaposed interoccipitals). Temporal single. No mental.

Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales. Reduction to 10 rows on the tail takes place lateral to the broad, semilunar-shaped cloacal shield. Total middorsals 297 (265–306), subcaudals 36 (34–38).

Total length/diameter ratio 52 (60–75), total length/tail ratio 9.7 (8.6–10.0).

Middorsal five to seven scale rows lightly pigmented, tan, venter immaculate creamy-white.

Everted hemipenis of MCZ 18179 (SVL 112 mm, tail 12.5 mm, 36 subcaudals) resembles that of Psammophis : organ single, filiform with slight taper distally, four subcaudals in length (1.0 mm long x 0.1 mm diameter), nude, lacking any ornamentation, sulcus simple, extending along posterior surface of organ.

Size. Largest specimen (MCZ 59175) 134.5 + 15 = 149.5 mm.

Habitat. Miombo woodland.

Distribution. Southeastern Tanzania, northern Malawi and northern Mozambique, 0–130 m ( Plate 5 ).

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.