Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 4093 No. 1: 21 Mar. 2016
Type: Article
Published: 2016-03-20
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4093.1.10
Page range: 143–150
Abstract views: 141
PDF downloaded: 1

A new species of Letheobia (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) from central Kenya

Section of Herpetology, National Museums of Kenya, P. O. Box 40658-00100, Museum Hill Road, Nairobi; Kenya 2Department of Biology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA
Nairobi Snake Park, National Museums of Kenya, P. O. Box 40658-00100, Museum Hill Road, Nairobi; Kenya
Nairobi Snake Park, National Museums of Kenya, P. O. Box 40658-00100, Museum Hill Road, Nairobi; Kenya
Reptilia Typhlopidae blind snake Letheobia Mt. Kenya

Abstract

A new species of blind snake in the genus Letheobia (L. mbeerensis sp. nov.) is described from the Mbeere area on the extreme lower slopes of southeastern Mt. Kenya. It is an attenuate blind snake, superficially similar to Letheobia lumbriciformis but with 20 midbody scale rows and 670 middorsal scales. It has a total length of 280 mm with the proportionally longest tail in the genus (2.9% of total length), a broad rostral, eyes barely visible and in life it is pink in color. The new species is known from only a single specimen collected at Siakago, in Mbeere-Embu, which lies at an elevation of about 1200m. It is a burrowing species and like many other blind snakes it is likely to be nocturnal and rarely encountered on the soil surface. The new species is incorporated into a key to the scolecophidian snakes of Kenya.

 

References

  1. Bocage, J.V.B. du (1866) Lista dos reptis das possessões portuguezas d’Africa occidental que existem no Museu de Lisboa. Jornal de Sciencias, Mathematicas, Physicas e Naturaes. Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, 1, 37–56.

    Boettger, O. (1913) Reptilien und Amphibien von Madagascar, den Inseln und dem Festland Ostafrikas. (Sammlung Voeltzkow 1889–1895 und 1903–1905). In: Voeltzkow, A. (Ed.), Reise in Ostafrika in den Jahren 1903–1905. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse. Systematische Arbeiten, 3 (4), 269–375, pls. 25–30.

    Boulenger, G.A. (1912) Missione per la frontiera Italo-Etiopica sotto il comando del Capitano Carlo Citerni. Risultati zoologici. List of the reptiles and batrachians. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Series 3, 5, 329–332.

    Broadley, D.G. & Wallach, V. (1996) Remarkable new worm snake (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) from the East African coast. Copeia, 1996, 162–166.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1446951

    Broadley, D.G. & Wallach, V. (2007a) A review of east and central African species of Letheobia Cope, revived from the synonymy of Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, with description of five new species (Serpentes: Typhlopidae). Zootaxa, 1515, 31–68.

    Broadley, D.G. & Wallach, V. (2007b) A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae). Zootaxa, 1408, 1–78.

    Broadley, D.G. & Wallach, V. (2009) A review of east and southern African blind-snakes (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) excluding Letheobia Cope, with the description of two new genera and a new species. Zootaxa, 2255, 1–100.

    Daudin, F.M. (1803) Histoire naturelle génerale et particulière des reptiles; ouvrage faisant suite aux Cuvres de Leclerc de Buffon, et partie du cours complet d'histoire naturelle rédigé par C. S. Sonnini, membre de plusieurs societies savantes. Tome septième. L’Imprimerie de F. Dufart, Paris, 436 pp., pls. 1–12.

    Gans, C. & Laurent, R.F. (1965) Snakes. In: Gans, C., Laurent, R.F. & Pandit, H. (Eds.), Notes on a herpetological collection from the Somali Republic. Annales du Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (Tervuren), (8vo–Sciences Zoologiques), 134, 47–70, pls. 6–7.

    Hedges, S.B., Marion, A.B., Lipp, K.M., Marin, J. & Vidal, N. (2014) A taxonomic framework for typhlopid snakes from the Caribbean and other regions (Reptilia, Squamata). Caribbean Herpetology, 49, 1–61.

    Jan, G. (1864) Iconographie générale des ophidiens. Première famille: les typhlopiens. Georges Jan, Milano, 42 pp.

    Jan, G. & Sordelli, F. (1860–1866) Iconographie générale des ophidiens. Tome premier (livrais. 1 à 17), contenant cent deus planches. J.B. Ballière et Fils, Paris, 11 pp., 102 pls.

    Loveridge, A. (1935) Scientific results of an expedition to rain forest regions in eastern Africa. I. New reptiles and amphibians from East Africa. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College (Cambridge), 79 (1), 1–19.

    Measey, G.J. & Branch, W.R. (2014) Family Typhlopidae. In: Bates, M.F., Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M., Burger, M., Marais, J., Alexander, G.J. & de Villiers, M. (Eds.), Atlas and Red List of the reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Suricata, 1, pp. 300. [South African Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria]

    Peters, W.C.H. (1854) Diagnosen neuer Batrachier, welche zusammen mit der früher (24. Juli und 17. August) gegebenen Übersicht der Schlangen und Eidechsen mitgetheilt werden. Bericht über zur Bekanntmachunggeeigneten Verhandlungen der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1854 (11), 614–628.

    Peters, W.C.H. (1874) Über einige neue Reptilien (Lacerta, Eremias, Diploglossus, Euprepes, Lygosoma, Sepsina, Ablepharus, Simotes, Onychocephalus). Monatsberichte der königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1874, 368–377, 1 pl.

    Peters, W.C.H. (1878) Über die von Hrn. J.M. Hildebrandt während seiner letzten ostafrikanischen Reise gesammelt-en Säugethiere und Amphibien. Monatsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1878, 194–209, 2 pls.

    Pyron, R.A. & Wallach, V. (2014) Systematics of the blindsnakes (Serpentes: Scolecophidia: Typhlopoidea) based on molecular and morphological evidence. Zootaxa, 3829 (1), 1–81.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3829.1.1.

    Scortecci, G. (1928) Rettili dell’Eritrea esistente nelle collezioni del Museo Civico di Milano. Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milano, 67 (3–4), 290–339.

    Scortecci, G. (1929) Primo contributo alla conoscenza dei rettili e degli anfibi della Somalia Italiana. Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milano, 68 (3–4), 245–279.

    Spawls, S., Bwong, B., Malonza, P., Muchai, V. & Wasonga, V. (2014) A new checklist of the reptiles of Kenya: Part 2; Snakes. The Kenya Reptile Atlas. 14 pp. Available from: http://kenyareptileatlas.com/ (accessed 22 February 2016)

    Wallach, V. (1993) The supralabial imbrication pattern of the Typhlopoidea (Reptilia: Serpentes). Journal of Herpetology, 27 (2), 214–218.

    http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1564940

    Wallach, V. (1996) Leptotyphlops drewesi n. sp., a worm snake from central Kenya (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae). Journal of African Zoology, 110, 1–7.

    Werner, F. (1909) Beschreibung neuer Reptilien aus dem Kgl. Naturalienkabinett in Stuttgart. Jahresheft des Vereins für vaterländische Naturkunde im Württemburg, 65, 55–63.