Mehelya poensis (Smith, 1849)

Material. ANGOLA – Cabinda Province • Nganzi; –5.4730, 12.3832; 129 m a.s.l.; EI 813 (roadkill); GenBank: PQ456006 .

Identification. A file snake with weak to smoothly developed secondary keels on the dorsal scales, 15 scale rows across the midbody and>84 subcaudal scales (Chippaux and Jackson 2019). The Cabinda Province material is identical (16S p -distance) to material from DRC (GenBank: MF680168) and Gabon (GenBank: AY611863) and differs very little across its distribution range (<1% 16S p -distance) (Trape et al. 2018).

Biology and distribution. This species is widely distributed from Sierra Leone to Uganda in the east and Angola in the south (Chippaux and Jackson 2019), being frequently found in forest patches (Spawls et al. 2018). In Angola, the species in known to occur in the northern half of the country (Branch 2018). The specimen from Cabinda Province was found killed on the road in the Littoral Peneplain, and additional information about its biology cannot be provided.