Antillotyphlops hypomethes (HEDGES & THOMAS, 1991)
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Antillotyphlops hypomethes
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| Higher Taxa | Typhlopidae (Typhlopinae), Typhlopoidea, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Puerto Rican Coastal Blindsnake |
| Synonym | Typhlops hypomethes HEDGES & THOMAS 1991: 452 Typhlops hypomethes — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 104 Typhlops hypomethes — KORNILIOS et al. 2013 Antillotyphlops hypomethes — HEDGES et al. 2014 Typhlops hypomethes — PYRON & WALLACH 2014 Antillotyphlops hypomethes — NAGY et al. 2015 Typhlops hypomethes — WALLACH et al. 2014: 763 |
| Distribution | Puerto Rico Bank Type locality: "University of Puerto Rico Campus (faculty housing), Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico" |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: USNM 300574 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus). Species of Antillotyphlops have (1) eye, distinct, (2) snout, rounded (rarely acuminate), (3) head scale arrangement, non-circular, (4) frontorostral, absent, (5) nasal, completely divided, (6) nasal suture origin, supralabial 2, (7) suboculars or subpreoculars, absent, (8) postoculars, 2 (rarely 1; average 2.0), (9) preocular-la- bial contact, supralabial 3, (10) midbody scale rows, 16–24 (average, 20.5), (11) scale row reduction, present, (12) total scale rows, 299–499 (average, 378), (13) caudals, 11–14 (average, 12.3), (14) maximum total length, 110–360 (average, 233) mm, (15) total length/midbody diameter, 37–70 (average, 46.8), (16) total length/tail length, 30–61 (average, 44.5), (17) dorsal color, brown, grayish-brown, or yellow, (18) ventral color, white or cream (rarely brown), (19) dorsum darker than venter, and (20) overall, lacking any distinctive pattern (spots, lines, or stripes), although rarely faint trace of lines (Tables 1–2); molecular phylogenetic support (Figs. 1, 3). Antillotyphlops is distinguished from Cubatyphlops by the presence of 2 postoculars (versus 1) and preoc- ular contact with supralabial 3 only (versus contact with supralabials 2 and 3 in Cubatyphlops). The same distinc- tion holds for Antillotyphlops versus the more distantly related Amerotyphlops, although 4 species of that genus have more than 1 postocular (Thomas 1968; 1976; Dixon & Hendricks 1979; Thomas & Hedges 2007). A closer comparison is needed between Antillotyphlops and Typhlops. With a cladistic analysis of morphological characters, Thomas (1989) found that species placed here in the genus Antillotyphlops (A. dominicana, A. granti, A. monensis, and A. richardi) formed a group based on the sharing of attenuate hemipenes, although he included Typhlops sulcatus in that group and placed A. monastus in a separate group with T. jamaicensis (hemipene data are not avail- able for some species). Also, Antillotyphlops have more total scale rows than Typhlops (378 versus 312; averages) and are thinner-bodied (TL/MBD = 46.8 versus 35.9; averages) [HEDGES et al. 2014: 44]. |
| Comment | Type species: Typhlops hypomethes HEDGES & THOMAS 1991: 452 is the type species of the genus Antillotyphlops HEDGES et al. 2014: 44. The genus corresponds to the subgenus Mosestyphlops Hoser 2012 (who apparently used the phylogeny of Vidal et al. 2010 without justifying the inclusion of species without DNA sequences). Synonymy: Antillotyphlops has been synonymized (back) with Typhlops. Nevertheless, Pyron & Wallach (2014) and Nagy et al. (2015) re-analyzed and confirmed the validity of Antillotyphlops as monophyletic as shown by Vidal et al. 2010. |
| Etymology | Named after the Greek promethes (= forethinking) and epimethes (= afterthinking) to mean below thinking, a double allusion to having been passed over (not thought about) and to the occurrence of the topo-typical population on a university campus. The genus name is a masculine noun formed from the adjective antilleus (a, um; ‘from the Antilles’) and Greek noun typhlops (the blind). |
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