Atractaspis congica Peters, 1877

Lobón-Rovira, Javier, Lobón-Rovira, Baptista, Ninda L, Clark, Tyron, Verburgt, Luke, Jongsma, Gregory Fm, Conradie, Werner, and, Luis Veríssimo, Vaz, Pedro & Pinto, 2025, Filling the gaps: herpetological checklist of Mayombe National Park and Cabinda Province (Angola) shed light on one of the most unexplored corners of tropical Central Africa, African Journal of Herpetology 74 (1), pp. 1-59 : 1-59

Atractaspis congica Peters, 1877

Material. ANGOLA – Cabinda Province • between Dinge and Chindende; –5.0922, 12.3092; 31 m a.s.l.; EI 811 (roadkill); GenBank: PQ455964 .

Identification. A stiletto snake (max. SVL = 481 mm) with 19–21 midbody scale rows and divided cloacal scales ( Peters 1877). The species was originally described from Chinchoxo, Cabinda Province, but there has never been topotypical material for genetical comparisons. Therefore, the obtained sample represents the genetic material closest to the

type locality. This material differs by 4.1% (16S p -distance) from material collected from Hillwood Farm , Zambia (GenBank: MK464459 ), and by>8% (16S p -distance) from material collected from Soyo , Angola (GenBank: MK621461 ) and DRC (GenBank: MK621462 ). This suggests some intraspecific diversification south of the Congo River, which is currently under investigation (Lobón-Rovira et al. in prep) .

Biology and distribution. Widely distributed in Central Africa, from Cameroon to Zambia ( Chippaux and Jackson 2019). Very little is known about its biology.

Colubridae