Leptotyphlops monticolus
Creators: name: Published, First
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2007
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Leptotyphlopidae
Leptotyphlops
Leptotyphlops monticolus

description: Leptotyphlops monticolus (Chabanaud) (Plate 10, Fig. 1)
Virunga worm snake
Glauconia emini — Sternfeld, 1910: 12, 1912: 264; Witte, 1933: 84 (part, Kissenye).
Glauconia monticola Chabanaud, 1917, Bull. Mus. Natn. Hist. Nat. Paris 22: 366, figs.7–9. Type locality: Volcans de Kivori, Congo-Belge [= E. Kivu Region, Democratic Republic of Congo], elevation 1500 m, holotype MNHN 1916.213, collected by Gromier and Le Petit, 1911.
Leptotyphlops emini — Witte, 1941: 171; Broadley, 1998: xxix.
Leptotyphlops monticola — Witte, 1941: 172.
Leptotyphlops emini emini — Loveridge, 1941: 177 (part); Laurent: 1956: 81; Roux-Estève, 1975: 60.
Leptotyphlops nigricans nigricans — Hahn, 1980: 23 (part); McDiarmid et al., 1999: 39.
Diagnosis. A member of the Leptotyphlops nigricans species group, distinguished from neighbouring L. emini by its relatively higher middorsal counts.
Description. Body cylindrical, with head and neck broadened and flattened, the short tail tapers slightly before a short stout spine or a blunt tail cone.
Snout rounded, rostral broad (0.43–0.45 head width, mean = 0.44) and truncated posteriorly, much wider than supranasals dorsally and extending to a line connecting centre of eyes, a preoral groove present ventrally. Behind rostral, upper lip bordered by infranasal (nostril nearer rostral than supralabial along nasal suture), small anterior supralabial that reaches level of nostril with a width along lip 2.0–3.0 times that of the infranasal, large ocular with eye central in upper half, and tall posterior supralabial. Supraoculars pentagonal, slightly larger than the hexagonal frontal and postfrontal, which are slightly smaller than the interparietal and interoccipital. Parietals oblique, subequal to the fused occipitals, in contact with the posterior supralabials. Temporal single.
Body covered with 14 rows of smooth, imbricate, subequal scales. Reduction to 10 rows on the tail takes place lateral to the subtriangular cloacal shield. Total middorsals 204–247; subcaudals 21–31.
Total length/diameter ratio 44–77; total length/tail ratio 8.0–13.5.
Uniformly dark brown to black dorsum and venter.
Skull with fused parietal bones as in Leptotyphlops nigricans (Plate 4, Fig. 1A).
Size. Largest specimen 154 mm (Roux-Estève, 1975).
Habitat. Montane grassland and gallery forest.
Distribution. The Virunga National Park and environs in the Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjacent Rwanda, 900–1500 m (Plate 5).
Localities. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (KIVU). Parc National Virunga: Goma IRSNB 3103, 6847; Kabiro IRSNB 12977; Katanda IRSNB 3100; Katare IRSNB 12970 (7), NMZB 15309–11; “ Kivu volcanoes” NMHN 1916.213 (holotype); Mahia IRSNB 12974 (2); Nyamuli IRSNB 12973; Rutshuru IRSNB 3102; Rwindi IRSNB 5369, 12985; Tshanzerwa IRSNB 3101; Vitshumbi IRSNB 6848. RWANDA. Kisenyi MCZ 42898; ZMB 27155.
description: Published as part of Published, First, 2007, A revision of the genus Leptotyphlops in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae), pp. 1-78 in Zootaxa 1408 on pages 35-37, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6789060