Atractaspididae - 2006 Publications

Revision of A. microlepidota group, Atractaspis watsoni revalidated

Trape et al. (2006) examined patterns of morphological variation in four described taxa of the Atractaspis microlepidota complex. Their findings suggest that A. microlepidota is restricted to westernmost Africa (Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania), and confirm the status of A. micropholis as a distinct species. A related form, A. watsoni, which has long been considered a synonym of A. microlepidota, is found to be a valid species (distinguishable by having five rather than seven gulars contacting the infralabials, and higher dorsal scale row counts) with a distribution extending from Mauritania to Sudan, through which it is sympatric with the similar A. micropholis, which is found from Senegal to Nigeria. The latter two can be distinguished by sutle aspects of head scalation. The status of eastern African and Arabian populations previously assigned to A. microlepidotus remains to be clarified.

• Trape, J.-F., Y. Mané & I. Ineich (2006) Atractaspis microlepidota, A. micropholis et A. watsoni en Afrique occidentale et centrale. Bulletin de la Société Herpétologique de France, 119: 5-16

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