Subphylum Vertebrata Rank Genus | Phylum Chordata Class Reptilia Suborder Serpentes | |
Similar Rhinotyphlops, Afrotyphlops, Amerotyphlops, Typhlops, Anilios | ||
Letheobia is a genus of blind snakes in the family Typhlopidae.
Contents
Geographic range
The genus is endemic to Africa.
Taxonomy
In 1869, the Letheobia genus 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 Duméril, 1856) 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. But, nonetheless, in 1881 Peters selected Letheobia caeca Duméril 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 into Rhinotyphlops, mostly into her Groups IV, V and VI. However, molecular studies in the 2000s showed that the 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 Broadley 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
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 Olivier Sylvain Gérard Pauwels.