Leptotyphlops scutifrons pitmani, Published, 2007

Published, First, 2007, A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae), Zootaxa 1408, pp. 1-78 : 45

Leptotyphlops scutifrons pitmani subsp. nov. ( Plate 12 , Fig. 4)

Pitman's worm snake

Glauconia emini — Sternfeld, 1912: 264.

Leptotyphlops conjuncta — Loveridge, 1933: 224; Pitman, 1935: 51; Uthmöller, 1941: 228 (Mto-wa-mbu).

Leptotyphlops conjuncta conjuncta — Loveridge, 1957: 246 (part); Pitman, 1974: 66.

Leptotyphlops conjunctus conjunctus — Laurent, 1956: 82, fig. 13; Spawls, 1978: 2 (part).

Leptotyphlops emini emini — Spawls, 1978: 3 (part).

Leptotyphlops conjunctus — McDiarmid et al., 1999: 25 (part).

Leptotyphlops scutifrons — Spawls et al., 2002: 299 (part).

Holotype. BMNH 1935.10.11.4 Bisu [= Biso], W Budongo Forest, Bunyoro, Uganda (01°44’N, 31°26’E, 1600 m). Collected by C.R.S. Pitman, July 1935.

Paratypes: UGANDA. Ankole District LIVM 1962.168.25 ; Buteba Camp, Budama BMNH 1934.3.2.1 ; Chamgurani LIVM 1962.50.35 ; Gulu to Lira FMNH 34485 ; Entebbe BMNH 1929.8.5.17 , 1954.1.12.17–18 ; 1963.948 ; 1965.670 ; PEM 1898 ; Jinja BMNH 1954.1.11.83–86 , 1983.1264 ; Kasaali LIVM 1962.106.59–60 ; Kigondo LIVM 1960.115.1 ; Kiyanga LIVM 1962.330.33 ; Mabona LIVM 1962.106.58 ; Mbarara LIVM 1962.50.36 ; 1962.168.27 ; Rushozi LIVM 1962.168.26 . KENYA. Chemilil CAS 141519 ; Kabarnet BMNH 1958.1.2.42 ; Kericho NMK / O 2850 ; Kisumu BMNH 1966.46 , 1978.1986 – 87 ; Sirgoit LACM 63382–83 ; Songhor BMNH 1960.1.5.57 , 1961.428 (2) . RWANDA. 30 km S of Kakitumba, 1475 m CAS 85761 . TANZANIA. Bukoba DM 68 ; Ukerewe Island ZMB 24945 .

Diagnosis. A subspecies of Leptotyphlops scutifrons distinguished from the typical form by its narrower wedge-shaped rostral (unguiform in typical L. scutifrons ) and from the intervening subspecies L. scutifrons merkeri by having 10 scale rows on the tail.

Etymology. Named for Charles Robert Senhouse Pitman (1890–1975), author of ‘A Guide to the Snakes of Uganda’, whose efforts contributed greatly to the accumulation of Ugandan material in the museums in London, Liverpool, Bulawayo and Kampala.

Description (paratype variations in parentheses). Body cylindrical, with head and neck broadened and flattened, the short tail tapers slightly to a blunt terminal cone or very small spine.

Snout rounded, frontal fused with the wedge-shaped rostral, rostral moderate (0.40–0.47 head width, mean = 0.44), broader than the supranasals anteriorly and extending well beyond the eyes, but constricted posteriorly and only a quarter the width of the head at the level of the eyes, a weak preoral groove present inferiorly. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril midway between rostral and supralabial along nasal suture), a small anterior supralabial that reaches the level of the nostril, large ocular with the eye at the upper anterior edge, and tall posterior supralabial (posterior supralabial fused to parietal on right side of LIVM 1962.50.35). Supraoculars pentagonal, anteriorly wedged between rostral and hexagonal postfrontal, which is smaller than a supraocular and subequal to the hexagonal interparietal and interoccipital. Parietals oblique, subequal to the fused occipitals, in contact with the posterior supralabials. Temporal single. No mental, four infralabials.

Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales, reducing to 10 rows on the tail lateral to the subtriangulat cloacal shield. Middorsals 227 (217–272); subcaudals 19 (18–30). Length of holotype 140 + 10 = 150 mm.

Total length/diameter ratio 50 (40–86); total length/tail length ratio 15.0 (9,7–15.4).

Dorsum blackish-brown, venter dark brown; lower edge of upper lip, rostral and chin, cloacal shield and tail tip yellow (rarely only chin tip light).

Size. Largest specimen (BMNH 1963.948 — Entebbe) 172 + 13 = 185 mm.

Habitat. Savanna.

Distribution. Northern Rwanda, Uganda, western Kenya and northwestern Tanzania (centred on the Victoria Nyanza basin), 1250–1830 m ( Plate 11 ).

Figures

PLATE 11. Leptotyphlops. Distribution of the Leptotyphlops scutifrons species group in East Africa. Type localities are labelled.

PLATE 12. Figure 1. Leptotyphlops nigroterminus sp. nov. Dorsal and lateral views of the head of the holotype, MCZ 54813 — Karema, Tanzania. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 2. Leptotyphlops latirostris. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of MCZ 53261/57459 from Uvira, DDC. Drawings by J. Boundy. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 3. Leptotyphlops scutifrons merkeri. Dorsal, lateral and ventral views of the head of the syntype, MCZ 31627 — Moshi, Tanzania. Drawings by J. Boundy. The line represents 1 mm to scale. Figure 4. Dorsal views of the heads of: A. Leptotyphlops latirostris. MRAC 18014 (Uvira, Kivu), compared with B. Leptotyphlops scutifrons pitmani. MRAC 18006 (Rwankuba, Rwanda), after Laurent (1956). The lines represent 1 mm to scale.