Lemuriatyphlops, Pyron, Robert Alexander & Wallach, Van, 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 : 55

Lemuriatyphlops gen. nov.

Type species. Typhlops microcephalus Werner, 1909a

Species content. Lemuriatyphlops albanalis, Lem. domerguei, Lem. microcephalus , and Lem. reuteri.

Diagnosis. Lemuriatyphlops can be distinguished from all other typhlopoids by lack of scale row reduction, and by the combination of the following characters: small-to moderate-sized (total length 77–276 mm), stout- to slender-bodied (length/width ratio 34–94) snakes with 20–22 scale rows (without reduction), 252–520 total middorsals, short to moderate tail (1.6–4.0% total length) with 6–16 subcaudals (length/width ratio 0.9–2.2), and apical spine small or nubbin. Dorsal and lateral head profiles rounded, narrow to moderate rostral (0.26–0.61 head width), inferior nasal suture in contact with second supralabial, preocular in contact with second and third supralabials, eye small with distinct pupil or eyespot, T-III or T-V SIP, and postoculars 1–3. Lateral tongue papillae present; left lung absent; tracheal lung multicameral (with 11–32 chambers), cardiac lung multicameral (with 2–4 chambers) or unicameral, and right lung multicameral (with 2–4 chambers); testes unsegmented; hemipenis eversible, lacking retrocloacal sacs; and rectal caecum small (0.8–2.5% SVL). Coloration light brown to black, venter lighter; and ventral snout, chin, cloacal region, and subcaudals yellow or white.

Phylogenetic definition. Includes all species more closely related to Lemuriatyphlops microcephalus than to the type species of the 15 other typhlopid genera listed here.

Etymology. Name is a masculine noun, and refers to the mythical lost continent of Lemuria, which connected Madagascar to India and Oceania.

Distribution. Available data suggest this genus is endemic to Madagascar; Lemuriatyphlops albanalis is of uncertain origin, though Madagascar is a possibility.

Remarks. Note that we also include Typhlops albanalis in Lemuriatyphlops here, based on 20 dorsal scale rows lacking reduction ( Rendahl 1918). The species was synonymized with Madatyphlops ocularis by Roux- Estève (1974), but examination of the types (NHR 3351 and 2574) by V.W. found it to be distinct from that species based upon numerous external and internal characters (Tables 2, 3), including the following ( L. albanalis data first, followed by M. ocularis data): dorsal head profile (tapered vs. ogival), lateral head profile (blunt vs. pointed), rostral shape (sagittate vs. parallel), anterior rostral (convex vs. concave with anterodorsal pocket behind dorsally projecting point), superior nasal suture (vertical, parallel to rostral vs. oblique), pupil of eye (invisible vs. visible), occipital shields (absent vs. present), color pattern (bicolored vs. uniform), length/width ratio (80–92 vs. 55–67), cardiac and right lungs (unicameral vs. multicameral), and significant differences between the lengths and midpoints of the liver, gonads, adrenals, kidneys and lungs plus most of the gaps and intervals between all the viscera. Therefore we ressurect the former species here under the combination of Lemuriatyphlops albanalis . Its distribution is unknown (purported to be from South Africa or Madagascar). This species was originally described from “Kapland” (= South Africa) but was supposedly corrected by FitzSimons (1962) to Madagascar based upon a label by W. Kaudern from November 1906. However, this species was not mentioned by either Andersson (1911), who reported on Kaudern’s Malagasy snake collection of 1906–1907, nor by Kaudern (1922), who reported on his own collections of 1906–1907 and 1911–1912. Similar to other Lemuriatyphlops , this species is small- to moderate-sized (total length 183–276 mm) and slender-bodied (length/width ratio 78–94) with 20 scale rows throughout, 499–520 total middorsals, short to moderate tail (1.8–2.2% total length) with 15–16 subcaudals (length/width ratio 2.0–2.2), broad oval rostral (0.54–0.61 head width), inferior nasal in contact with second supralabial, T-III SIP, postoculars two, tracheal lung multicameral, cardiac and right lungs unicameral, and a large rectal caecum. Note that these species were all included in Madatyphlops by Hedges et al. (2014) without inclusion in their phylogenies, but are clearly morphologically distinct (Tables 2, 3), and strongly supported outside of Madatyphlops in the phylogeny, in a separate Palearctic and Asian clade ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Results from a molecular phylogenetic analysis of 95 of the 275 known, extant species of typhlopoid blindsnakes. Tree represents the ML estimate from a concatenated matrix of 4 mitochondrial and 6 nuclear genes (6290 bp total), inferred using 200 independent searches in RAxMLv 7.2.8, with support estimated from 1000 non-parametric BS replicates (> 50 % shown).