Herpetology Notes, volume 14: 205-207 (2021) (published online on 26 January 2021)

A snake with an appetite for the rare: Amblyodipsas polylepis (Bocage, 1873) feeding on the amphisbaenid Monopeltis luandae Gans, 1976

Werner Conradie1,* and Pedro Vaz Pinto2,3

Specimens in natural history museum collections catalogue number PEM R22034. The snake measured represent a unique snapshot of the time and place they 634 mm in snout–vent length (no tail length is provided were collected, while the analysis of stomach contents as the tail was truncated). Identification to the nominate often leads to unexpected results and new discoveries. For subspecies A. p. polylepis was based on a series of example, the Angolan lizard Ichnotropis microlepidota characteristics (fide Broadley, 1990), including enlarged Marx, 1956 was described based on material recovered fangs below a small eye; loreal absent; preocular absent; from the crop of a Dark Chanting Goshawk (Melierax one postocular; seven supralabials, with the 3rd and metabates), and the species has not been collected since 4th entering the orbit; seven infralabials, with the first (Marx, 1956; van den Berg, 2018). Specifically, such four in contact with a single pair of genials; temporal an approach is known to provide extremely valuable formula 0+1 on both sides; 19-19-17 midbody scale insights into highly cryptic and rarely sighted fossorial rows; 227 ventrals; 16+ paired subcaudals (truncated). species, such as amphisbaenids (Broadley, 1971; Shine The specimen was re-examined in mid-2019 and it was et al., 2006). These tend to be generally underrepresented discovered that the stomach was full. Upon dissection, a in museum collections and, therefore, make a case for fully intact amphisbaenian was removed (Fig. 1B). It had examining the stomach contents of snake species that been swallowed tail first and displayed no signs ofdigestion, frequently prey upon the rare. indicating that the predation event took place just before On 6 November 2014, an adult female Amblyodipsas capture and subsequent preservation of the snake. The polylepis (Bocage, 1873) was collected on a farm at amphisbaenian was accessioned as PEM R25220. Its Kikuxi (9.0606°S, 13.3539°E, elevation 105 m), near details are as follows: sex undetermined; snout–vent Luanda, Luanda Province, Angola, by João Vieira de length 371 mm, tail length 24 mm, total length 395 mm; Sousa, a local farm owner, who found the snake during azygous head shields fused in the midline; large lateral the daytime while removing leaf litter under mango sulci; 228 body annuli, 26 dorsal scutes and 18 ventral trees. The specimen (Fig. 1A) was deposited in the Port scutes per midbody annulus; 15 caudal annuli; ocular Elizabeth Museum herpetology collection under the scale present; three supra- and three infralabials on both sides of the head; precloacal pores absent. The specimen was identified as Monopeltis luandae Gans, 1976 based on a lack of preanal pores, azygous head shields that are 1 Port Elizabeth Museum, PO Box 13147, Humewood 6013, heavily keratinised and fused along the midline but retain South Africa; and School of Natural Resource Management, lateral sulci, and the low number of caudal annuli and George Campus, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, high number of body annuli (Gans, 1976). South Africa. This is only the second confirmed record ofMonopeltis 2 CIBIO/InBio Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Rua Padre in the diet of A. p. polylepis, after Bates et al. (2009) Armando Quintas, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, recorded M. anchietae. Other amphisbaenid species Portugal. have also been documented in the diet of A. polylepis, 3 Fundação Kissama, Rua 60 Casa 560, Lar do Patriota, Luanda, including records of Zygaspis sp. and Zygaspis violacea Angola; and TwinLab CIBIO/ISCED, Instituto Superior de in the diet of A. p. polylepis (Shine et al., 2006) and Ciências da Educação da Huíla, Rua Sarmento Rodrigues s/n, Loveridgea ionidesii in the diet of A. p. hildebrandtia Lubango, Angola. (Broadley, 1971). There is also a citizen scientist record * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] of an A. p. polylepis eating what appears to be either a © 2021 by Herpetology Notes. Open Access by CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Monopeltis or Dalophia (Taylor, 2018). 206 Werner Conradie & Pedro Vaz Pinto

Figure 1. (A) An adult female Amblyodipsas p. polylepis from Kikuxi near Luanda, Angola, and (B) its prey, Monopeltis luandae. Scale bars = 1 cm. Photos by Werner Conradie.

The diet of A. p. polylepis is diverse and comprises lizards such as Nucras intertexta and N. ornata; Broadley, mostly fossorial species (including the skinks Acontias 1971; Jacobsen, 1989; Jennings, 1994; Shine et al., plumbeus and A. percivalli, as well as the blindsnakes 2006; Maritz and Maritz, 2020). Members of the closely Afrotyphlops mucruso and A. schlegelii), but also some related genus Xenocalamus (see Portillo et al., 2018 for terrestrial species (including lamprophiid snakes, such as a discussion on the taxonomic status of Xenocalamus species of Aparallactus or Lycophidion capense, colubrid versus Amblyodipsas) are well known to specialise in snakes such as Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, and lacertid feeding largely on amphisbaenids (Broadley, 1971). Amblyodipsas polylepis Feeding on the Rare Monopeltis luandae 207

Monopeltis luandae was historically only known from Jacobsen, N.H.G. (1989): A herpetological survey of the Transvaal. the four type specimens collected at three unique localities Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Zoology, University of in the region of Angola’s capital city Luanda (Gans, 1967), Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Jennings, P.E. (1994): Amblyodipsas polylepis polylepis (Purple- until Branch et al. (2018) documented the rediscovery of glossed Snake). Diet. African Herp News 21: 21. the species. The two newly collected specimens (collected Maritz, R.A., Maritz, B. (2020): Sharing for science: high- in 2016 and 2018, respectively) originated from the same resolution trophic interactions revealed rapidly by social media. farm at Kikuxi as the animals in the current report, west PeerJ 8: e9485. of the capital city of Luanda. The new record documented Marx, H. (1956): A new lacertid lizard from Angola. Fieldiana here predates the initial rediscovery by two years and Zoology 39: 5–9. represents only the seventh specimen and fourth known Portillo, F., Branch, W.R., Conradie, W., Rödel, M.-O., Penner, J., Bare, M.F., et al. (2018): Phylogeny and biogeography locality for the species. The habitat at Kikuxi consists of the African burrowing snake subfamily Aparallactinae of Pleistocene red sands and the natural vegetation is (Squamata: Lamprophiidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and currently mostly transformed into agricultural fields for Evolution 127(2018): 288–303. crop production (Branch et al., 2018). In the years since Shine, R., Branch, W.R., Harlow, P.S., Webb, J.K., Shine, T. (2006): rediscovery, additional specimens of M. luandae have Biology of Burrowing Asps (Atractaspididae) from Southern been recorded and collected on this farm, indicating a Africa. Copeia 2006(1): 103–115. healthy population that tolerates disturbance associated Taylor, R. (2018): Typical Worm Lizards (Family Amphisbaenidae). Available at https://www.inaturalist.org/ with agricultural habitat transformations. Other reptile observations/9975980. Accessed on 30 November 2020. species found in sympatry on this site, include the van den Berg, M.P. (2017): An annotated bibliographic history of snakes Boaedon bocagei, Lycophidion cf. meleagre, Ichnotropis Peters, 1854 (Reptilia, Lacertidae) with remarks Atractaspis bibronii, Psammophis mossambicus, on the validity of some of the including species. L@certidae Dasypeltis palmarum, and D. scabra, as well as the (Eidechsen Online) 2017(4): 60–138. lizards Agama mucosoensis, Sepsina bayonii, Panaspis cabindae, Hemidactylus bayonii, and H. mabouia. Our finding demonstrates the value of examining the stomach contents of preserved museum material in poorly surveyed countries such as Angola, in order to reveal a ‘treasure trove’ of important dietary information and new records of poorly documented species.

Acknowledgments. We thank Bryan Maritz for providing a pre- peer review, which improved the quality of this note substantially. We further want to thank Robin Maritz for confirming historically documented prey items presented in this study.

References

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