Cylindrophis burmanus Smith 1943

Amarasinghe, A. A. Thasun, Campbell, Patrick D., Hallermann, Jakob, Sidik, Irvan, Supriatna, Jatna & Abstract. - The, Ivan Ineich, 2015, Two new species of the genus Cylindrophis Wagler, 1828 (Squamata: Cylindrophiidae) from Southeast Asia, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 98) 9 (1), pp. 34-51 : 41-42

Cylindrophis burmanus Smith 1943 Cylindrophis rufus burmanus Smith 1943: 97

( Figs. 2, 3, 8; Tables 1, 2)

Proposed standard English name: Burmese Pipe-Snake

Lectotype (designated herein): BMNH 1940.3 .3.1, ( SVL 320 mm), collected from Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) by an unknown collector, collection date unknown. This specimen was presented to BMNH by Professor F.J. Meggitt, University College Rangoon (ac- cording to the museum registry). Although Smith (1943) had several specimens at his disposal at the time, he pro- vided the measurement for only the largest specimen in the series. Because the original description is not com- prehensive enough, and because of the fact that the Cylindrophis population in Myanmar may represent more than one species, in order to stabilize the name with a recognized type specimen, we here designate BMNH 1940.3 .3.1 as the lectotype.

Paralectotypes (6): BMNH 1940.3 .3.2, ( SVL 212 mm), collected from Rangoon, Burma by an unknown collec- tor, presented by F.J. Meggitt ; BMNH 1908.6 .23.3, ( SVL 293 mm), Burma, collector and date unknown, presented by Major F. Wall ; BMNH 1891.11 .26.28, ( SVL 280 mm), Pyinmana , Upper Burma, collector and date unknown, presented by E.W. Oates ; BMNH 1925.4 .2.2, ( SVL 280 mm), Thandoung , Burma, collector and date unknown, presented by F. Wall ; BMNH 1925.12 .22.4, ( SVL 256 mm), Sahmaw , Myitkyina District, Burma, collector and date unknown, presented by F. Wall; and probably ZMB 3094 (fide Iskandar and Colijn 2002; indicated no justi- fication). All these paralectotypes share the same charac- ters as the lectotype and belong to the same species .

Diagnosis: Cylindrophis burmanus is distinguished from all congeners by having the following characters: 19 midbody scale rows (vs. 17 in C. engkariensis ; 23 in C. aruensis , C. opisthorhodus ; 21 in C. isolepis , C. lineatus , C. maculatus , and C. yamdena ), 201–225 ventrals (vs. 233–275 in C. melanotus ; 193–200 in C. boulengeri ; 186–197 in C. ruffus ), narrow and alternating bands on paler body (vs. dorsum uniform black with no crossbands in C. boulengeri ; wide, constant, dorsally interrupted bands encircling the dark body in C. ruffus ), a complete and narrow ring encircling the nape (vs. no ring on the nape in C. boulengeri ; a wide, dorsally interrupted band encircling the nape in C. ruffus ).

Description of lectotype: SVL 320 mm, tail length 10 mm; body elongate, rounded in cross-section; head not distinct from neck, broadened and dorsoventrally flat- tened in the orbital and sagittal regions; snout rounded in dorsal and lateral view.

Rostral shield large, visible from above with a conical apex; a single nasal, widely in contact behind the rostral, no internasals; nasals in contact with rostral anteriorly, with prefrontal dorsally, and the first and second supra- labials ventrally; nostrils large; canthus rostralis weakly defined; prefrontal hexagonal, larger than frontal; fron- tal large, triangular, and longer than width; supraocular wide, triangular, wider posteriorly; parietal small, trian- gular, its rear border rounded, bordered by supraocular, frontal shield, upper posterior temporal shield, occipital shield, and two dorso-nuchal shields posteriorly on each side, the occipital shield smaller than other dorso-nuchal scales; loreal and preocular absent; eye small, pupil rounded; eye in broad contact with supraocular dorsally, prefrontal and third supralabial anteriorly, fourth supral- abial ventrally, and postocular posteriorly; a single large postocular, subtriangular, posteriorly narrow, in broad contact with supraocular, anterior temporal, upper pos- terior temporal, and fourth supralabial; temporals 1+2, all triangular; anterior temporal smaller than upper pos- terior; anterior temporal in contact with both posterior temporals, 4 th and 5 th supralabials ventrally; anterior tem- poral does not meet parietals.

Five supralabials, 3 rd and 4 th largest in size; first supral- abial in contact with rostral anteriorly and nasal dorsally; second supralabial in contact with nasal and prefrontal dorsally; third supralabial in contact with prefrontal and eye dorsally; fourth supralabial in contact with eye, post- ocular, and anterior temporal dorsally; fifth supralabial in contact with anterior and posterior temporals.

Mental small, triangular; first infralabial pair larger than mental plate and in broad contact with each other, in contact with anterior chin shield posteriorly; five infral- abials in total, 1 st –3 rd in contact with first chin shield, 4 th and 5 th in contact with gular scales, and not touching the chin shields; anterior chin shields larger than posterior ones; a mental groove continues from the posterior tip of the mental until the posterior chin shields.

Body slender; transverse dorsal scale rows 19–19–17, all smooth, subcycloid, and weakly imbricate; vertebral and midventral scales undifferentiated from adjacent scales; 213 ventrals; cloacal plate divided, precloacal un- divided and triangular, tail extremely short, relative TL (TL/total length) 3.0%, with a conical thick and robust tip; 6 or 7 (damaged) entire subcaudals.

Coloration: The lectotype (the largest specimen of the original syntypes) has a brown back with narrow and al- ternating white stripes along dorsal surface from behind nape to tail, each stripe covering about half of one scale; head entirely dark, a complete, narrow ring encircling the nape; the venter is brown with regular, mottled cream colored bars. See Fig. 2 for details of coloration in pre- servative.

Variation of paralectotypes: SVL range from 256–293 mm; body scale rows at neck ranges from 17–19; ven- trals 201–225; relative TL 2.1–2.9%.

Distribution: Cylindrophis burmanus is only reported from Myanmar ( Fig. 8).