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| Polemon ater
Portillo, Branch, Tilbury, Nagy, Hughes, Kusamba, Muninga, Aristote, Behangana & Greenbaum, 2019
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Abstract
African snake-eaters of the genus Polemon are cryptic, fossorial snakes that mainly inhabit the forests of central, eastern, and western Africa. Molecular results from a previous study demonstrated that Polemon christyi is not monophyletic—two distinct lineages were recovered from Uganda (the type locality) and southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Genetic data indicated differences in sequence divergence and encoded amino acids between these lineages. Based on these molecular differences and diagnostic differences in morphology, we describe the lineage from southeastern DRC as a new species. Literature records indicate that it likely occurs in adjacent Tanzania and Zambia. It is the first species of Polemon to be described in over 70 years.
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| the holotype of Polemon ater, PEM R20734 (254 mm SVL), subadult male from Fungurume, Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in life.
photo: Colin R. Tilbury
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Polemon ater, new species
Black Snake-eater
Etymology.— Derived from the Latin atrum in reference to the grayish black or black dorsal and ventral coloration that is present in all known specimens of P. ater.
Frank Portillo, William R. Branch, Colin R. Tilbury, Zoltán T. Nagy, Daniel F. Hughes, Chifundera Kusamba, Wandege M. Muninga, Mwenebatu M. Aristote, Mathias Behangana and Eli Greenbaum. 2019. A Cryptic New Species of Polemon (Squamata: Lamprophiidae, Aparallactinae) from the Miombo Woodlands of Central and East Africa. Copeia. 107(1); 22-36. DOI: 10.1643/CH-18-098
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