Letheobia scorteccii Gans & Laurent
Creators
Description
Letheobia scorteccii (Gans & Laurent)
(Fig 8 C)
Scortecci’s blind-snake
Typhlops unitaeniatus – (not Peters) Lepri 1911: 318; Scortecci 1930: 15 (part, Mogadiscio).
Typhlops scorteccii Gans & Laurent 1965, Ann. Mus. Roy. Afr. Cen., Tervuren, (134): 56, Fig. 12 & Pl. 6. Type locality: 10 km south of Afgoi, on the sand dune road to Merca [Marka], Benadir Province, Somali Republic (02°05’N, 45°10’E, elevation 30 m), collected by C. Gans, 25 July 1961, holotype MCZ 74455; Gans & Taub, 1965: 107. Rhinotyphlops scortecciI – Roux-Estève 1974: 246, Fig. 184, 1975: 445; Hahn 1980: 35; Lanza 1983: 219, 1990: 430; Lambert 1985: 66; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 87.
Description. Snout very prominent, with an obtusely angular keratinised edge on rostral; rostral very large, subrectangular, extending far beyond the eye spots, rostral ventrally almost as wide as the head at the level of the nostrils; frontal crescentic, supraocular oblique, its lateral apex between nasal and preocular; eye barely visible beneath the nasal, nasal suture arising from L2; SIP X (N1, P, P, P). Scale rows usually 26-24-24l; MD 311–405. L/D ratio 27–73. Dark to blackish brown dorsally, slightly lighter ventrally, with a bright yellow stripe running from top of head along the anterior half to three-quarters of the back.
Size. Largest specimen (BMNH 1963.420 – Benadir region, Somalia) 275 mm in total length.
Habitat. Somali Acacia-Commiphora bushland and thicket. Most of the type series were taken at a depth of 30 to 60 cm in sand beneath the debris from a long defunct thorn bush. The Mogadiscio specimens were taken by hoeing up grasses in sandy soil during the early morning (Gans & Laurent 1965).
Distribution. Restricted to a small area round Mogadiscio and Lower Shabeelle in southern Somalia, 0– 100 m (Fig. 12).
Localities. SOMALIA. Unknown locality NHCL 1536-37, 1550; Afgoi MZUF 24202; 10 km S of Afgoi MCZ 74455 (holotype), 74456-59 (paratypes); Benadir region (Lepri 1911) BMNH 1963.420; CM 38719 (paratypes); Merka MZUF 29695; Mogadiscio (Scortecci 1930) MCZ 74460-62 (paratypes); MZUF 2661; MZUT 1753 (2); NHCL 1538-40; Lower Shabeelle MZUF 21977.
Other
Published as part of Wallach, Van, 2007, A review of East and Central African species of Letheobia Cope, revived from the synonymy of Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, with descriptions of five new species (Serpentes: Typhlopidae), pp. 31-68 in Zootaxa 1515 on pages 57-58, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.177278Files
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Related works
- Cites
- Figure: 10.5281/zenodo.177286 (DOI)
- Is part of
- Journal article: 10.5281/zenodo.177278 (DOI)
- Journal article: http://publication.plazi.org/id/FF8CFFA1FF953813903FFFBDF365FFA5 (URL)
- Is source of
- https://sibils.text-analytics.ch/search/collections/plazi/03B587D9FF8F380890A8F98CF0C1FD1F (URL)
Biodiversity
- Family
- Typhlopidae
- Genus
- Letheobia
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Squamata
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Scientific name authorship
- Gans & Laurent
- Species
- scorteccii
- Taxon rank
- species
References
- Lepri, G. (1911) Ofidii del Benadir. Bollettino della Societa Zoologica Italiana (Camerino), (1910) (2) 11, 317 - 217.
- Scortecci, G. (1930 b) Contributo alla conoscenza dei rettili e degli anfibi della Somalia, dell'Eritrea e dell'Abissinia. Bolletino dei Musei di Zoologia e di Anatomia Comparata della R. Universita di Torino, (3) 41 (10), 1 - 26.
- Gans, C. & Laurent, R. F. (1965) Snakes. In: Gans, G., Laurent, R. F. & Pandit, H. (Eds.), Notes on a herpetological collection from the Somali Republic. Annales du Museum Royal de l'Afrique Centrale (Tervuren), (8 vo - Sciences Zoologiques), 134, 47 - 70, Pls. 6 - 7.
- Gans, C. & Taub, A. M. (1965) Segmental correlation between integument and vertebral column in Typhlopids (Reptilia, Squamata). Copeia (Washington), 1965 (1), 107 - 108.
- Roux-Esteve, R. (1974). Revision systematique des Typhlopidae d'Afrique: Reptilia - Serpentes. Memoirs du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris), (N. S.) (A, Zoologie), 87, 1 - 313.
- Hahn, D. E. (1980) Liste der rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien: Anomalepididae, Leptotyphlopidae, Typhlopidae. Das Tierreich (Berlin), 101, i - xii, 1 - 93.
- Lanza, B. (1983) A list of the Somali amphibians and reptiles. Monitore Zoologico Italiano, Firenze, (N. S.) Supplemento 18 (8), 193 - 247.
- Lambert, M. R. K. (1985) Reptiles. In: Report on the species of vertebrates in riverine and coastal forest habitats of southern Somalia and the lower Tana in Kenya. University College London & Tropical Development and Research Institute, London, pp. 58 - 71.