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Review of the Dispholidini, with the description of a new genus and species from Tanzania (Serpentes, Colubridae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2002

D.G. BROADLEY  and
V. WALLACH
D.G. BROADLEY
Affiliation:
Research Associate, Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Present address: Biodiversity Foundation for Africa, P.O. Box FM 730 Famona, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. email:[email protected]
V. WALLACH
Affiliation:
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The tribe Dispholidini (Bourgeois 1968) is reviewed, paying particular attention to dentition and visceral anatomy. A new genus and species, Xyelodontophis uluguruensis, is described from the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania. All five genera have enlarged rear maxillary teeth. Thrasops seems to be basal, Rhamnophis shows the development of dagger-like teeth tapering from base to tip, then the other three genera appear to radiate, with Xyelodontophis having more derived dagger teeth broadest in the middle, while Dispholidus and Thelotornis seem to have independently developed enlarged grooved rear fangs.

Thrasops schmidti is recognised as a relict evolutionary species. No subspecies of Rhamnophis aethiopissa or Dispholidus typus are recognised, but the population of Dispholidus on Pemba Island probably represents an undescribed species.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the Natural History Museum: Zoology Series , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , 28 November 2002 , pp. 57 - 74
Copyright
© Natural History Museum, 2002

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