Psammophis leopardinus, Bocage, 1887

Trape, Jean-François, Crochet, Pierre-André, Broadley, Donald G., Sourouille, Patricia, Mané, Youssouph, Burger, Marius, Böhme, Wolfgang, Saleh, Mostafa, Karan, Anna, Lanza, Benedetto & Mediannikov, Oleg, 2019, On the Psammophis sibilans group (Serpentes, Lamprophiidae, Psammophiinae) north of 12 ° S, with the description of a new species from West Africa, Bonn zoological Bulletin 68 (1), pp. 61-91 : 75

PSAMMOPHIS LEOPARDINUS Bocage, 1887

Leopard Whip Snake, Psammophis léopard, Leoparden-Sandrennnatter

Psammophis sibilans var. leopardinus Bocage, 1887: 206 . Type locality: Catumbela , Angola. Lectotype MBL 1798, destroyed by fire in the Museu Bocage.

Psammophis sibilans var. C (part) & D Bocage, 1895: 117; Ferreira 1905: 116.

Psammophis sibilans leopardinus Broadley, 1977: 18 , Pl. ii; 1983: 143

Psammophis brevirostris leopardinus Brandstätter, 1995: 53 .

Psammophis leopardinus Broadley, 2002: 95 .

Description. Two specimens examined by DGB from the Angolan coast north of Latitude 12° S: USNM 20132 from Luanda and TM 45751 from Quiçama National Park. Nostril pierced between 2 or 3 nasals; preocular 1, widely separated from frontal; postoculars 2; temporals usually 2 + 3; supralabials 8, 4 th & 5 th entering orbit; infralabials 10, the first 4 in contact with anterior sublinguals; dorsal scales in 17-17-13 rows; ventrals 163–167; cloacal divided; subcaudals 104–106.

Both specimens have P. leopardinus head markings, but the dorsum is uniform except for a yellow dotted vertebral line in USNM 20132 and pale dorsolateral stripes on scale row 4 in TM 45751.

Ferreira (1905) recorded three specimens from northern Angola (Cazengo; Chingo) and Cabinda, which were presumably destroyed by fire in the Museu Bocage. Further data on this taxon were published by Broadley (2002) and Hughes & Wade (2002).