A review of East and Central African species of Letheobia Cope, revived from the synonymy of Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger, with descriptions of five new species (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)

Abstract

The genus Letheobia Cope 1869 is revived for the “worm-like blind-snakes” which were assigned to the genus Rhinotyphlops Fitzinger 1843 by Roux-Estève in 1974 (her Groups IV to VII). Letheobia pallida is restricted to Zanzibar, and the specimens from Pemba Island, the East African coast, southern Sudan and southwestern Ethiopia are described as four new species. Three species included by Roux-Estève (1974) in the polyphyletic genus Typhlops Oppel, T. uluguruensis  Barbour & Loveridge (Group II), T. obtusus Peters and T. decorosus Buchholz & Peters (Group V) are considered basal forms in the genus Letheobia and a related species, L. jubana sp. nov., is described from southern Somalia.