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Remarkable New Worm Snake (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae) from the East African Coast

1996; American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists; Volume: 1996; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1446951

1938-5110

Donald G. Broadley, Van Wallach,

Bat Biology and Ecology Studies

A new species of Leptotyphlops is described on the basis of seven specimens from coastal Kenya and Tanzania. Leptotyphlops macrops is distinguished from all other species in the genus by the combination of a very large eye beneath a dome in the ocular shield and the presence of a unipartite testis. Leptotyphlops macrops is provisionally included in the L. longicaudus group and seems to be most closely related to L. emini, which on the basis of its paired parietal bones is a valid species rather than a synonym of L. nigricans (List, 1966). The known specimens of L. macrops were all associated with patches of coastal forest.