Leptotyphlops burii (Boulenger) (Plate 7, Fig. 3)

Bury's Worm Snake

Glauconia burii Boulenger, 1905, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) 16: 178. Type locality: El Kubar [= Khawbar], Upper Hushabi, Yemen (13°48’N, 44°45’E, elevation 1350 m), holotype BMNH 1946.1.16.56 (formerly BMNH 1903.3.6.48), collected by G.W. Bury.

Leptotyphlops burii — Corkill & Cochrane, 1966: 496; Hahn, 1980: 9; Leviton & Aldrich, 1984: xxiv; Arnold, 1987: 252; Gasperetti, 1988: 203, fig. 17; Schätti & Gasperetti, 1994: 383; McDiarmid et al., 1999: 24; Schätti & Desvoignes, 1999: 77.

Leptotyphlops buri — Hahn, 1978: 485, fig. 6.

Leptotyphlops blanfordi nursi — Hahn, 1978: 486 (part), fig. 8.

Leptotyphlops nursii — Gasperetti, 1988: 201 (part).

Diagnosis. Closely related to Leptotyphlops nursii, but distinguished by its larger rostral (0.62–0.68 head width, mean = 0.66) and frontal (twice the size of supraoculars) shields, occipitals never enlarged, and higher middorsal count (403–408 vs 281–378).

Description. See Gasperetti (1988). Twelve scale rows on the tail; middorsals 403–408; subcaudals 28– 33; total length/diameter ratio 61–69; total length/tail length ratio 13.8–14.4. Middorsal seven scale rows pigmented light brown or tan, ventral seven rows paler, unpigmented.

Size. Largest (holotype) 205 mm in total length.

Distribution. Highlands of southwestern Yemen, 1350–1460 m (Plate 5).

Localities. YEMEN. ad-Dali (Dhala) BMNH 1937.11.1.9–10 (where sympatric with Leptotyphlops nursii); Khawbar (holotype) .