Myriopholis macrorhyncha (JAN, 1860)
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Myriopholis macrorhyncha
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| Higher Taxa | Leptotyphlopidae, Leptotyphlopinae, Myriopholini, Typhlopoidea, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Longnosed Worm Snake, Hook-snouted worm snake G: Langnasige Schlankblindschlange E: Phillips' Blind Snake [phillipsi] |
| Synonym | Stenosoma (Ramphostoma) macrorhynchum JAN 1860 Stenosoma (Ramphostoma) macrorhynchum JAN 1861: 190 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus (JAN 1860 in JAN & SORDELLI 1860-1866) Glauconia macrorhynchus BOULENGER 1890: 92 Glauconia macrorhynchus — BOULENGER 1893: 61 Glauconia hamulirostris NIKOLSKY 1907: 260 Leptotyphlops phillipsi BARBOUR 1914: 87 Glauconia erythrea SCORTECCI 1929: 293 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — CORKILL 1932: 8 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus macrorhynchus — ANGEL 1936 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — SMITH 1943 Leptotyphlops erythraea — PARKER 1949: 21 Leptotyphlops hamulirostris — MERTENS 1956: 90 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — VILLIERS 1956: 152 Leptotyphlops macrorhyncus — WEBER 1969 (in error) Leptotyphlops phillipsi — CORKILL & COCHRANE 1966 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — PAPENFUSS 1969: 279 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — HAHN 1978 Leptotyphlops erythraeus — HAHN 1980: 14 Leptotyphlops hamulirostris — HAHN 1980: 16 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus macrorhynchus — HAHN 1980 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — LARGEN & RASMUSSEN 1993 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — SCHLEICH, KÄSTLE & KABISCH 1996: 475 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus macrorhynchus — HAHN & WALLACH 1998 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 35 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — BROADLEY & WALLACH 2007: 29 Leptotyphlops hamulirostris — RASTEGAR-POUYANI et al. 2008 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — GRUBER 2009 Myriopholis macrorhyncha — ADALSTEINSSON, BRANCH, TRAPE, VITT & HEDGES 2009 Myriopholis phillipsi — ADALSTEINSSON, BRANCH, TRAPE, VITT & HEDGES 2009 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 429 Myriopholis macrorhyncha — WALLACH et al. 2014: 465 Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus — RHADI et al. 2017 Myriopholis macrorhyncha — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 374 |
| Distribution | Turkey (West of Tigris through Adiyaman Province), Egypt, Sinai, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Senegal, Ghana, Guinea (Conakry), Eritrea, possibly Cameroon (Hughes 1983), Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Kenya, Somalia, NW India (Gujarat), Pakistan; elevation 0-1250 m. Type locality: “Sennaar” (Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS)) phillipsi: S Israel, Jordan; Type locality: Petra, Arabia (= Jordan). |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: lost, was MSNM (Milano, now lost fide VENCHI & SINDACO 2006). Holotype: MCZ 9650 [phillipsi] Lectotype: ZISP 10299.1 (designated by Kramer & Schnurrenberger 1963); Paralectotypes: CAS 99737–99738, NMNH 872.2287, MNKNU 1875, 8841, ZISP [hamulirostris] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A member of the Leptotyphlops longicaudus group, differing from L. longicaudus in its strongly hooked snout and relatively shorter tail (total length/tail ratio 10.0–14.3 vs 5.7–11.0). It differs from L. cairi in being unpigmented, having a beak, and a longer, thinner body. Skull with a large frontoparietal foramen like L. cairi. (Broadley & Wallach 2007) Other description: Smith 1943: 60 Description. Body cylindrical, with head and neck slightly broadened, the moderate tail tapers to a small blunt terminal cone. Snout hooked in lateral view with distinct beak, rostral moderate (0.36–0.60 head width, mean = 0.50), much wider than nasals dorsally, not reaching level of eyes. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril midway between rostral and supralabial along nasal suture), small anterior supralabial with a width along lip equal to that of infranasal, large ocular with small eye or eyespot centrally placed in upper half, and moderate posterior supralabial. Frontal, supraoculars, and postfrontal subequal, forming a rather floral-like rosette pattern (as if cut from a single large median rounded shield). Supraoculars subpentagonal, anteriorly wedged between upper nasal and ocular, posteriorly wedged between frontal and postfrontal, both smaller than interparietal and interoccipital. Parietals transverse, larger than the occipitals (which are not fused, but usually fused elsewhere in the species range), in contact with the posterior supralabials. Temporal single. No mental, four infralabials. Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales. Reduction to 10 rows takes place lat- eral to the subtriangular cloacal shield. Total middorsals 315–404; subcaudals 26–43. Total length/diameter ratio 64–133; total length/tail ratio 10.0–15.7. Dorsum unpigmented, pale reddish-brown or pink (in life) to beige or tan (in preservative), venter cream to white, but a specimen from Sodere, Ethiopia, has the subcaudals pigmented. (Broadley & Wallach 2007) Size: Largest specimen (NMK/O. 2661 — Porr Hill, Turkana, Kenya) 150 + 10 = 160 mm. (Broadley & Wallach 2007) |
| Comment | Similar species: L. cairi. Distribution: Not listed in TRAPE & MANÉ 2006. Records from Mauritania represent L. algeriensis (according to PADIAL, pers. comm.). Not in Niger (L. Chirio, pers. comm. 23 Aug 2013). Records from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are now assigned to L. algeriensis (TRAPÉ 2002). Not in Morocco (Martínez et al. 2019, and pers. comm. 18 Jan 2021). M. macrorhynchus has been found in Israel but M. philipsi has not (BAR & HAIMOVITCH 2012). Not in Libya and records from this country probably represent M. lanzai or possibly M. algeriensis (Bauer et al. 2017). Not in Mali fide Trape & Mané 2017; records from Bourem (Papenfuss 1969, as Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus; Hahn & Wallach 1998, as Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus algeriensis), are actually Myriopholis algeriensis. See map in Burriel-Carranza et al. 2019 for map in UAE. For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013. Synonymy: following HAHN 1998. Leptotyphlops algeriensis JAQUET 1895 has been considered a synonym of Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus (HAHN 1980) or as a subspecies of L. macrorhynchus (HAHN & WALLACH 1998). Leptotyphlops macrorhynchus bilmaensis ANGEL 1936 has been synonymized with Leptotyphlops cairi by HAHN & WALLACH 1998 (and has been listed as L. m. bilmaensis BARBOUR 1914 by SCHLEICH, KÄSTLE & KABISCH 1996). Glauconia braccianii SCORTECCI 1929 is now considered as a synonym of L. cairi. L. erythraeus is most likely a valid species fide TRAPE (2002). Disi et al. (2001) and Bouskila & Amitai (2001) list L. phillipsi as a synonym of L. macrorhynchus, following Hahn 1978 and Hahn 1998. ADALSTEINSSON et al. 2009 seem to have adopted this name without analyzing specimens. Habitat. Sandy areas of dry savanna and semi-desert. At least parapatric with Leptotyphlops cairi at the type locality and in the lower Nile Valley near Cairo, Egypt (Baha el Din, 2006). |
| Etymology | Named after Greek makros, "long," and Greek rhynchos meaning beak or snout, referring to the relatively long snout of the species. L. phillipsi has been named after the collector of the type, Dr. J.C. Phillips. |
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