Letheobia
Letheobia is a genus of blind snakes in the family Typhlopidae. Geographic range. The genus is endemic to Africa. Taxonomy. In 1869, the genus "Letheobia" was established by Edward Drinker Cope based primarily on two specimens of "Letheobia pallida" from Zanzibar, but later also including "Letheobia caeca" (originally "Onychocephalus cæcus" ) from Gabon. Wilhelm Peters, in 1874 when describing "Onychocephalus lumbriciformis" from Zanzibar and in 1878 "Typhlops unitaeniatus" from Kenya, considered "Letheobia" to be a subgenus. Nonetheless, in 1881, Peters selected "Letheobia caeca" as the type species for the genus. In 1883, Boulenger decided that at best "Letheobia" was a  subgenus of "Typhlops", and placed it as a junior synonym. Later in reconstructing "Rhinotyphlops" in 1974, Roux-Estève moved all of "Letheobia" species into "Rhinotyphlops", mostly into her Groups IV, V and VI. However, molecular studies in the 2000s showed that "Rhinotyphlops", as conceived by Roux-Estève (1974), was polyphyletic, and that many if not all of Groups V and VI constituted a separate genus, for which the name "Letheobia" had priority. In 2007 and Wallach formally revived the genus "Letheobia". In 2013, Pyron et al. considered with some certainty that "Letheobia" was a sister group to the combined genera  Afrotyphlops and "Megatyphlops", while the three were then sister to "Rhinotyphlops", and the four were the sister to "Typhlops". Species. The genus "Letheobia" contains the following 37 species which are recognized as being valid. "Nota bene": A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than "Letheobia". Etymology. The specific name, "pauwelsi", is in honor of Belgian herpetologist .