Letheobia ataeniata Boulenger
Authors/Creators
Description
Letheobia ataeniata (Boulenger)
(Fig 8 B)
Somali blind-snake
Typhlops unitaeniatus var. ataeniatus Boulenger 1912, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 5: 331. Type locality: Dolo, la frontiera Italo-Etiopica [= Somalia] (04°11’N, 42°05’E, elevation 200 m), collected by Captain C. Citerni, syntypes BMNH 1946.1.10.78 (ex-BMNH 1912.6.6.12) & MSNG (2 specimens); Boulenger 1915b: 616; Werner 1921: 331; Calabresi 1923: 160, 1927: 31 & 51; Scortecci 1930: 15.
Typhlops somalicus, – (not Boulenger) Calabresi 1918: 123.
Typhlops unitaeniatus ataeniatus – Scortecci 1939: 264; Parker 1949: 22; Battersby 1954: 246; Largen 1978: 59.
Typhlops ataeniatus – Gans & Laurent 1965: 59; Gans & Taub 1965: 107.
Rhinotyphlops unitaeniatus – (not Peters) Roux-Estève 1974: 241, 1975: 445 (part); Hahn 1980: 36 (part); Lanza 1983: 219, 1990: 430 (part); Lambert 1985: 66 (part); Largen & Rasmussen 1993: 322.
Rhinotyphlops unitaeniatus ataeniatus – Largen 1978: 59.
Rhinotyphlops ataeniatus – Wallach 1994: 219; McDiarmid et al. 1999: 78; Spawls et al. 2006: 92.
Description. Head shape and shield pattern similar to L. unitaeniata. Scale rows usually 26-24-24; MD 443– 531 (mean 487.83). L/D ratio 34–72. Uniform yellow-brown to black, top of head with a short median orange or yellow stripe.
Size. Largest specimen (MZUF 27171 – Mareri, Somalia) 455 mm in total length. This species seems to average a little larger than Letheobia unitaeniata (Fig. 1).
Habitat. Somali Acacia-Commiphora bushland and thicket. Sympatric with L. unitaeniata on the sandy levees on the west bank of the Juba River (Hoevers & Johnson, 1982).
Distribution. Somalia, eastern Ethiopia (Ogaden) and just entering northeastern Kenya, 25–1000 m (Fig. 12).
Localities. ETHIOPIA. Callafo AAU/H863-64. SOMALIA. Afgoi (Scortecci 1930) MZUF 1080-81; MZUT 1765 (2); Beidos MZUF 2467; Chisimaio MZUF 6920; Dolo BMNH 1946.1.10.78 (holotype); Gelib to Margherita MZUF 976; Haud BMNH 1949.2.1.1 (08°26'N, 46°00’E), 1949.1.1.2 (08°26'N, 45°43'E), 1949.1.1.3 (08°29'N, 45°34'E), 1949.1.1.4 (08°10'N, 46°30'E); Lower Shebeli NHCL 1534; Mareri (Juba Sugar Project: Hoevers & Johnson 1982) CAS 151200, 225266-70; MZUF 27171-78; 33660; Totungas to Obbia MZUF 1123; Zona basso Uebi (Calabresi 1923). KENYA. Malka Murri (Daua River: Battersby 1954) BMNH 1952.1.8.88.
Remarks. The holotype was collected near the Ethiopia-Somalia border at Dolo. Largen & Rasmussen (1993) list the coordinates for Dolo as 04°11’N, 42°05’E, placing it in Somalia. The Operational Navigation Charts ONC L-5 and L-6 show Dolo at 04°11’N, 42°03’E, placing it in Ethiopia, noting however that the “administration boundary is in dispute.”
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
References
- 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 Genoa, (3) 5 (45): 329 - 332.
- Boulenger, G. A. (1915 b) A list of the snakes of East Africa, north of the Zambesi and south of the Soudan and Somaliland, and of Nyasaland. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1915, 611 - 640.
- Werner, F. (1921) Synopsis der Schlangenfamilie der Typhlopiden auf Grund des Boulenger'schen Schlangenkatalogs (1893 - 1896). Archiv fur Naturgeschichte (Berlin), 87 A (7), 266 - 338.
- Calabresi, E. (1923) Anfibi e rettili dell'Africa Orientale raccolti durate le spedizioni Franchetti e Zammarano. Atti della Societa Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico do Storia Naturale in Milano, 62 (2), 145 - 163.
- 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.
- Calabresi, E. (1918) Rettili Somali raccolti fra Gelib e Margherita (Riva sinistra del Guiba) dai dott. Mazzocchi e Scarsellati, nel 1912. Monitore Zoologico Italiano (Firenze), 29 (8), 122 - 124.
- Scortecci, G. (1939). Spedizione zoologica del Marchese Saverio Patrizi nel Basso Guiba e nell'Oltreguiba. Giugno- Agosto 1934 XII. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria (Genova), 58: 263 - 291.
- Battersby, J. C. (1954) Reptiles and amphibians collected in the Northern Frontier Division of Kenya in 1951. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History (London), (12) 7, 241 - 248.
- Largen, M. J. (1978) The status of the family Typhlopidae (Reptilia Serpentes) in Ethiopia. Monitore Zoologico Italiano (Firenze), (N. S.) Supplemento 10, 43 - 68.
- 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.
- Largen, M. J. & Rasmussen, J. B. (1993) Catalogue of the snakes of Ethiopia (Reptilia Serpentes), including identification keys. Tropical Zoology (Firenze), 6, 313 - 434.
- Wallach, V. (1994) The status of the Indian endemic Typhlops acutus (Dumeril & Bibron) and the identity of Typhlops psittacus Werner (Reptilia, Serpentes, Typhlopidae). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique (Bruxelles), (Biologie) 64, 209 - 229.
- Spawls, S., Howell, K. M. & Drewes, R. C. (2006) Reptiles and amphibians of East Africa. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 240 pp.
- Hoevers, L. G. & Johnson, P. M. (1982) Notes on a collection of snakes from the Middle Juba Region, Somalia. Monitore Zoologico Italiano (Firenze), (N. S.) Supplemento 16 (8), 173 - 203.