Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Articles
Published: 2012-01-25
Page range: 39–54
Abstract views: 42
PDF downloaded: 3

The unexpected discovery of blind snakes (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) in Micronesia: two new species of Ramphotyphlops from the Caroline Islands

Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, National Museum of Natural History, MRC 111, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, USA
Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Micronesia – FSM, P.O. Box 159, Kolonia, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia 96941
Yap Institute of Natural Sciences, P.O. Box 215, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia 96943. E-mail: mfalanruw@mail.fm; and U.S. Forest Service PSW Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry,
Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Micronesia – FSM, P.O. Box 159, Kolonia, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia 96941
Serpentes Ant Atoll arboreality hemipenes Oceania Scolecophidia Ulithi

Abstract

Two new blind snakes in the genus Ramphotyphlops are described from Ulithi (R. hatmaliyeb sp. nov.) and Ant Atoll (R.adocetus sp. nov.) in the Caroline Islands, the first blind snake species known from Micronesia east of Palau (excludingRamphotyphlops braminus). Both species are unusual in being known only from small, low-lying atolls. They can be dis-tinguished from other Ramphotyphlops by the combination of 22 scale rows over the length of the body; a wedge-shaped snout, without a keratinized keel; and a broad, pyriform (R. adocetus) or ovate (R. hatmaliyeb) rostral scale.

References

  1. Anonymous. (1898) Edgar R. Waite In Notes and exhibits. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 22, 685–686.

    Bickford, D. & Wynn, A.H. (2005) Ramphotyphlops multilineatus. Behavior. Herpetological Review, 36, 327.

    Boulenger, G.A. (1900) On a new blind snake from Lifu, Loyalty Islands. In: Willey, A. (Ed.), Zoological Results Based on Material from New Britain, New Guinea, Loyalty Islands and Elsewhere, Collected During the Years 1895, 1896 and 1897, Part 5. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 603–604.

    Bryan, E.H., Jr. (1971) Guide to Place Names in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (the Marshall, Caroline and Mariana Islands). Pacific Scientific Information Center, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, (unpaginated).

    Buden, D.W. (1996) Reptiles, birds, and mammals of Ant Atoll, eastern Caroline Islands. Micronesica, 29, 21–36.

    Buden, D.W. (1998) Morphological variation and distributional ecology of the giant Micronesian gecko (Perochirus scutellatus) of Kapingamarangi Atoll. Pacific Science, 52, 250–258.

    Buden, D.W. (2000) The reptiles of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Micronesica, 32, 155–180.

    Buden, D.W. (2007) A new species of the genus Lepidodactylus Fitzinger (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from The Mortlock Islands, Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. Pacific Science, 61, 407–414.

    Buden, D.W. & Panuel, J. (2010) Distribution, abundance and habitat preference of an undescribed species of blind snake (Serpentes: Typhlopidae) on Ant Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia. Herpetological Bulletin, 114, 8–14.

    Crombie, R.I. & Pregill, G.K. (1999) A checklist of the herpetofauna of the Palau Islands (Republic of Belau), Oceania. Herpetological Monographs, 13, 29–80.

    Das, I. & Wallach, V. (1998) Scolecophidian arboreality revisited. Herpetological Review, 29, 15–16.

    Dickinson, W.R. (2004) Impacts of eustasy and hydro-isostasy on the evolution and landforms of Pacific atolls. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 213, 251–269.

    Dryden, G.L. & Taylor, E.H. (1969) Reptiles from the Mariana and Caroline Islands. The University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 48, 269–279.

    Fritts, T.H. & Rodda, G.H. (1998) The role of introduced species in the degradation of island ecosystems: A case history of Guam. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 29, 113–140.

    Gaulke, M. (1995) Observations on arboreality in a Philippine blind snake. Asiatic Herpetological Research, 6, 45–48.

    Leviton, A.E., Gibbs, R.H., Jr., Heal, E. & Dawson, C.E. (1985) Standards in herpetology and ichthyology: Part I. Standard symbolic codes for institutional resource collections in herpetology and ichthyology. Copeia, 1985, 802–832.

    List, J.C. (1966) Comparative osteology of the snake families Typhlopidae and Leptotyphlopidae. Illinois Biological Monographs, 36, 1–112.

    McDiarmid, R.W., Campbell, J.A. & Touré, T.A. (1999) Snake Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Herpetologists’ League, Washington, DC. 511 pp.

    McDowell, S.B. (1974) A catalogue of the snakes of New Guinea and the Solomons, with special reference to those in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Part I. Scolecophidia. Journal of Herpetology, 8, 1–57.

    Ota, H., Hikida, T., Matsui, M., Mori, A. & Wynn, A.H. (1991) Morphological variation, karyotype and reproduction of the parthenogenetic blind snake, Ramphotyphlops braminus, from the insular region of East Asia and Saipan. Amphibia-Reptilia, 12, 181–193.

    Pregill, G. (1998) Squamate reptiles from prehistoric sites in the Mariana Islands. Copeia, 1998, 64–75.

    Pregill, G.K. & Steadman, D.W. (2009) The prehistory and biogeography of terrestrial vertebrates on Guam, Mariana Islands. Diversity and Distributions, 15, 983–996.

    Robb, J. (1960) The internal anatomy of Typhlops Schneider (Reptilia). Australian Journal of Zoology, 8, 181–216.

    Robb, J. (1966) The generic status of the Australasian typhlopids (Reptilia: Squamata). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 13, 675–679.

    Shea, G.M. & Wallach, V. (2000) Reexamination of an anomalous distribution: resurrection of Ramphotyphlops becki (Serpentes: Typhlopidae). Pacific Science, 54, 70–74.

    Thomas, J.P.R. (1976) Systematics of the Antillean Blind Snakes of the Genus Typhlops (Serpentes: Typhlopidae). PhD dissertation, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, xvi + 288 pp.

    Uetz, P. & Hosek, J. (2011) The Reptile Database. Available from http://www.reptile-database.org (accessed 13 November 2011)

    Wallach, V. (1996) The systematic status of the Ramphotyphlops flaviventer (Peters) complex (Serpentes: Typhlopidae). Amphibia-Reptilia, 17, 341–359.

    Watling, D., Wynn, A. & Zug, G.R. (2010) Rediscovery of the Taveuni blindsnake. Oryx, 44, 165–166.

    Wiles, G.J. (2004) A record of Perochirus cf. scutellatus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands. Micronesica, 37, 163–166.

    Wynn, A.H., Cole, C.J. & Gardner, A.L. (1987) Apparent triploidy in the unisexual brahminy blind snake, Ramphotyphlops braminus. American Museum Novitates, 2868, 1–7.