SANBI

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

Widespread and common.

Distribution

Occurs from Tanzania in the north, through Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho as far south as the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa (Bates et al. 2014). It occurs in the eastern and central parts of South Africa, (Broadley and Broadley 1999, Broadley and Wallach, 2007). The extensive overlap in distributions of the putative subspecies emphasises the unsatisfactory nature of the current taxonomy, but also indicates that museum curators and researchers have difficulty distinguishing between the two taxa using the currently recognized morphological diagnostic characters.

Habitat View more ecological information

Population trend

Trend

The population is suspected to be stable.

Threats

There are no substantial threats to this species.

Uses and trade

There is no known utilization.

Conservation

Some of the populations identified by Adalsteinsson et al. (2009) as possible new species may have restricted ranges and may later require separate conservation assessments. An assessment of the subspecies in South Africa within a phylogenetic framework would be useful.

References

[@book{612,
 address = {Pretoria},
 author = {Bates, M.F., Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M., Burger, M., Marais, J., Alexander, G.J. and de Villiers, M.S.},
 publisher = {Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute},
 title = {Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland},
 year = {2014}
}
,@book{2817,
 address = {Cape Town},
 author = {Branch, W.R.},
 publisher = {Struik Publishers},
 title = {Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Edition},
 year = {1998}
}
,@article{178203,
 author = {Adalsteinsson, S.A., Branch, W.R., Trapé, S., Vitt, L.J. and Hedges, S.B.},
 journal = {Zootaxa},
 pages = {1--50},
 title = {Molecular phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of snakes of the family Leptotyphlopidae (Reptilia, Squamata)},
 volume = {2244},
 year = {2009}
}
,@article{178203,
 author = {Broadley, D.G. and Broadley, S.},
 journal = {Syntarsus},
 pages = {1--36},
 title = {A review of the African worm snakes from south of the latitude 12&deg;S (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae)},
 volume = {5},
 year = {1999}
}
,@article{44979746,
 author = {Broadley, D.G. and Wallach, V.},
 journal = {Zootaxa},
 pages = {1--78},
 title = {A revision of the genus <i>Leptotyphlops</i> in northeastern Africa and southwestern Arabia (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae)},
 volume = {1408},
 year = {2007}
}
,@article{44979834,
 author = {Broadley, D.G. and Watson, C.},
 journal = {Occasional Papers National Museums and Monuments, Rhodesia,  B. Natural Sciences},
 number = {8},
 pages = {465--510},
 title = {A revision of the worm snakes of southeastern Africa (Serpentes: Leptotyphlopidae)},
 volume = {5},
 year = {1976}
}
,@article{44979898,
 author = {Webb, J.K, Shine, R., Branch, W.R. and Harlow, P.S.},
 journal = {Journal of Zoology, London},
 pages = {321--327},
 title = {Life history strategies in basal snakes: reproduction and dietary habits of the African thread snake, <i>Leptotyphlops scutifrons</i> (Serpentes, Leptotyphlopidae)},
 volume = {250},
 year = {2000}
}
,]

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Red List of South African Species