Indotyphlops laca, O'Shea & Wallach & Hsiao & Kaiser, 2023

O'Shea, Mark, Wallach, Van, Hsiao, Emma & Kaiser, Hinrich, 2023, “ Anteaters ” under the airport: a slender new species of blindsnake, genus Indotyphlops, from Timor-Leste (Scolecophidia: Typhlopidae: Asiatyphlopinae), Canadian Journal of Zoology 101 (6), pp. 486-498 : 489-492

Indotyphlops laca sp. nov.

Laca’s Wormsnake (ENG), Ular Kawat Laca (IND), Samea Matan Delek Laca (TET).

Figures 3–5, 8

ZOOBANK LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3D01D4D9-F75C-4F6F-A004-BA8A9A2B3298 .

HOLOTYPE: MCZ R-192968 (field No. MOS 3264 ), an immature female ( Fig. 3) collected by H. Kaiser and M. O’Shea on 10 August 2014 near the fuel depot at Nicolau Lobato International Airport , Dili Municipality, Timor-Leste (8.5485 ◦ S, 125.5204 ◦ E, elevation ca. 10 m).

DIAGNOSIS: Indotyphlops laca ( Figs. 3–5) is a small (SVL = 119 mm), slender (relative body thickness 71 or 1.4% of TTL) member of the genus with a T-V SIP, 18 scale rows along the body lacking posterior reduction, 434 middorsal scales, rostral oval with relative rostral width 0.36, semidivided nasal shield, inferior nasal suture contacting second supralabial, eyespot lacking pupil or iris, relative tail length 1.6%, occipital scales not enlarged, and lacking apical spine.

ETYMOLOGY: This species epithet is a patronym, using the name as a noun in apposition. We dedicate this species to Agivedo “Laca” Varela Ribeiro ( Fig. 6A), a citizen of Timor-Leste and a native of Raça in Lautém, the country’s easternmost municipality. When we floated the idea of naming the species collectively for the Timorese members of our research team, they requested that we honour Laca instead.

MOS and HK first met Laca through an introduction by Venancio “Benny” Carvalho while these two were students at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e, the country’s national university. Laca’s interests had led him to pursue a degree in science education, but with a twist: he and two of his fellow students wanted to write research theses in biology, which had not been done before. We decided to help and recruited Laca and his friends, Zito Afranio Soares and Luis Lemos de Araujo, to assist with our survey work. Laca presented a research thesis and graduated, and he has continued his work in environmentalism and science by assisting other researchers with fieldwork, by participating in mangrove reforestation projects, and by promoting environmental issues through art ( Fig. 6B).

While Laca certainly is an exceptional fieldworker and environmentalist, we would be remiss not to mention Laca’s role as a member of our fieldwork team, comprising Laca, Luis, Zito, and Benny, who were collectively known to us as “the Jets” ( Fig. 6C). These four gentlemen quickly became invaluable colleagues and close friends, and their knowledge of multiple diverse cultures and languages in this small country proved critical, as the Jets acted as translators and fixers, which was ideally complemented by their enthusiastic involvement in fieldwork ( O’Shea and Kaiser 2013). These surveys would never have been as successful as they became without their help. Their sobriquet “Benny and the Jets” was coined by MOS in 2009 after the well-known song about a fictitious band 6, Bennie and the Jets, written by Sir Elton John CBE and Bernie Taupin CBE, which was included on Sir Elton’s 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It is serendipitous that this snake was located in an installation accommodating jet aircraft. Laca was the remaining Jet present during our last expedition, a flag expedition of the Explorer’s Club of New York (Flag #97, Fig. 6D), during which the holotype of I. laca was discovered.

DESCRIPTION OFTHE HOLOTYPE: An immature female ( Fig. 4A) with length measurements (in mm) of 119 SVL + 2 TL = 121 TTL, TL = 1.7% of TTL; midbody diameter 1.7, relative body thickness = 71 or 1.4% of TTL, midtail diameter 1.2, tail 1.6

6 We are indeed aware that Bennie in the song is a female character, but the name stuck to our amazing team, nonetheless.

times longer than wide. 18-18-18 scale rows, lacking posterior reduction. 434 middorsals, nine subcaudals, ten dorsocaudals. Snout rounded in dorsal view with the head wider than the neck ( Fig. 4B); rostral oval, 0.36 rostral width, extending nearly to the intraocular level ( Fig. 5A); frontal and postfrontal subequal in size; interparietal transversely enlarged, larger than frontal and postfrontal ( Fig. 5A); parietals twice as broad as deep and transversely oriented; occipitals not enlarged; rostral and nasal with broad yellow gland lines beneath scale margins; in lateral view ( Figs. 4D and 4E), the snout is rounded and projecting beyond the countersunk lower jaw ( Figs. 4C and 4E); tongue protruding slightly, without any lateral tongue papillae; nasal shield mostly lacking melanophore pigmentation except for along basal glands, semidivided with inferior suture contacting second supralabial and incomplete superior suture extending nearly horizontally to cover 0.3 nostril–rostral distance; posterior nasal border with a deep, rather angular concavity; preocular single, 1.5 times as broad as ocular ( Fig. 5B); ocular twice as tall as broad with eye reduced to a dark spot lacking discernible pupil and iris, located in upper central portion of ocular in lateral view ( Figs. 4D and 4E), in dorsal view it appears beneath the supraocular near the junction of the preocular and ocular ( Fig. 4B); postocular single, twice as tall as broad; four supralabials, all approximately as broad as deep, increasing in size posteriorly, arranged in a T- V pattern with second supralabial overlapping the preocular and third supralabial overlapping the ocular; first supralabial minute, third supralabial twice the size of second, fourth supralabial the largest, three times the size of the third; tail lacking a terminal spine and ending in a nubbin ( Figs. 4F and 4G). Presence of a right oviduct confirmed the gender as female; the ovaries, which resembled adipose deposits, were undeveloped and devoid of follicles, indicating an immature specimen.

COLOURATION IN LIFE: Indotyphlops laca has a dorsal colouration of reddish or pinkish brown (colour between S#32 Chestnut and S#132b Mahogany Red, and between K#80 Tawny and K#34 Mahogany Red) on the middorsal scale row and six longitudinal scale rows on either side of it. This colour lightens anteriorly to form a reddish-pink head cap (S#108D Rose Pink; K#219 Pinkish Rose or K#243 Rose Pink) on the head shields and the first 6–7 posteriad scale rows. The colour on the 6–7 caudal-most scale rows is a pale brown. All costal scales have a crescent-shaped, basal spot of darker pigmentation covering 20%–25% of each scale. This darker colour is dark brown on dorsally oriented scales and pale brown on ventrally oriented scales. The snout has distinctly visible, unpigmented, yellow-hued gland lines that create separation between the reddish-pink brown scale pigmentation of the rostral and the nasal shields ( Fig. 4B); the labials appear mostly unpigmented, yellow-hued with some brownish pigmentation extending from the dorsal part of the head onto the scales only along their sutures. This is also seen in the ocular, which is generally lighter than the more anterior scales; the skin around the eye is unpigmented. The remaining head shields are predominantly pinkish brown. The chin and the throat are devoid of darker pigmentation, and this light area extends eight scale rows posteriad from the mental. The five longitudinal scale rows on the ventral side are generally lighter than those on the dorsum, nearly lacking pigmentation except for pale brown basal spots. The cloacal and subcaudal regions mirror the size of the unpigmented pattern on the chin and this pattern extends to the ventral part of the apical nubbin, which is pigmented dorsally.

COLOURATION AFTER PRESERVATION: After 8 years in preservation, the entire specimen lacks most discernible pigmentation except for the distal dorsocaudal 7–8 scale rows, which exhibit the faintest tan pigmentation. This rather rapid pigmentation loss is puzzling, since preserved blindsnakes typically retain their pigmentation for decades, but in this case it may be a further characteristic of a fully fossorial snake when natural selection does not act against skin pigmentation instability.

COLLECTION AND NATURAL HISTORY: On 10 August 2014, during the tenth and final phase of a 6-year project surveying the herpetofauna of Timor-Leste ( Kaiser et al. 2011, 2013;

O’Shea et al. 2012, 2015; Sanchez et al. 2012), the expedition team was granted special access to PNLIA to investigate stories of Macklot’s water pythons ( Liasis m. mackloti Duméril and Bibron, 1844 ) and other snakes that were periodically found around the containers and buildings that constitute the airport fuel depot ( Figs. 7A, 7C–7E). The fuel depot is located approximately 300 m to the west of the passenger terminal, while the light aircraft and helicopter hangar is located about 200 m west of the terminal ( Fig. 2B). In the event, and despite an intensive search by the eight team members, only two snakes were found: one specimen of Virgotyphlops braminus (MCZ-R192967) and the holotype of I. laca . Coincidentally, the Indotyphlops specimen was the final specimen collected before the expedition departed the country 2 days later, and it was entirely unexpected that a specimen collected in such a heavily impacted area should be such a strikingly different new species.

The snake was found by HK when he turned over a series of rocks in a small depression ( Figs. 7A and 7F) just to the left of the light aircraft and helicopter hangar ( Figs. 7A and 7G). Beneath a top layer of rounded, hand-sized rocks were several larger, flat boulders. Removal of these revealed the presence of a colony of black ants. The lowest flat rock was centrally located in the ant colony, and lifting it revealed the entrances to several narrow tunnels as well as the blindsnake. Blindsnakes are well known to be myrmecophagous (e.g., Webb and Shine 1993; Parpinelli and Marques 2015), earning them the moniker of a reptilian “anteater”. Upon being uncovered, the snake did not move directionally but immediately began to writhe wildly and was captured by hand with some difficulty due to its very slender build and the presence of a large number of aggressive ants. When the individual was subsequently placed on a piece of coconut palm bark for photography purposes, it was observed to disappear through relatively narrow holes and move around with ease in the fibrous material between the inner and outer layers of bark ( Figs. 8A–8F), where to our consternation it occasionally disappeared entirely for several minutes during the photoshoot. The V. braminus specimen ( Fig. 7H) was also found by HK, under a rock near a fence at Location H ( Fig. 7A).

SPECIES COMPARISONS: In the following comparisons, characters of I. laca are provided in parentheses. The geographically closest congener, I. schmutzi , has 403–413 middorsals (434), a completely divided nasal (semidivided), relative tail length 1.9–2.0 (1.7), terminal spine present (absent), and maximum body size at 140 mm TTL (121 mm). It can be separated from most other Indotyphlops by the presence of a T-V SIP. In addition to a great geographical separation, I. laca differs from the four non-Lesser Sunda Indotyphlops species exhibiting a T-V pattern by the following diagnostic characteristics. Indotyphlops exiguus has only 348 middorsal scales (434), a clavate rostral (oval), preocular equal in size to ocular (larger than ocular), and a longer body at 196 mm TTL (121 mm). Indotyphlops filiformis has only 389 middorsals (434), the first six vertebral scales transversely enlarged (only the interparietal transversely enlarged), enlarged occipitals (not enlarged), and apical spine present (absent). Indotyphlops lazelli has 409–427 middorsals (434), a long superior nasal suture at 0.67–0.90 of nostril–rostral distance (0.33), coneshaped terminal spine (absent), and longer TTL of 158 mm (121 mm). Indotyphlops porrectus has the first four vertebrals transversely enlarged (only the interparietal transversely enlarged), superior nasal suture of 0.7–1.0 (0.33), postnasal concavity absent (present), ocular larger than preocular (vs. smaller than ocular), enlarged occipitals (not enlarged), apical spine present (absent), and larger body size at 285 mm TTL (121 mm).