An international team of researchers from the United States and Madagascar has described a new, possibly microendemic, species of the snake genus Madagascarophis from the tsingy karst massif of Ankarana National Park, the Malagasy Province of Antsiranana, and named it ‘ghost snake’ for its pale grey coloration and elusiveness.
Madagascarophis lolo in life. Image credit: Christopher J. Raxworthy.
The newly-discovered snake is a representative of Madagascarophis, a genus of relatively small (rarely longer than 3.3 feet, or 1 m), mildly venomous snakes.
This genus is commonly referred to as Malagasy cat-eyed snakes for their vertical pupils, which is often found among snakes that are active in the evening or night.
Among Malagasy snakes, the cat-eyed snakes are among the most commonly encountered species throughout many habitat types.
These snakes are nocturnal/crepuscular, both terrestrial and semi-arboreal, and spend their daylight hours concealed, such as in the axils of bromeliads.
Their diets include frogs, lizards, mammals, birds, and even other snakes.
Madagascarophis lolo. Image credit: Sara Ruane.
The scientific name of the new cat-eyed snake species is Madagascarophis lolo.
“The species name, lolo, is taken from the Malagasy word for ghost; it is a noun in apposition to the genus name,” the scientists explained.
“This name refers to (i) the ghostly pale gray color of the holotype, and (ii) that M. lolo has eluded discovery for so long at Ankarana, arguably one of the better surveyed sites in Madagascar.”
Madagascarophis lolo is described in a paper published in the September 2016 issue of the journal Copeia.
“Madagascarophis lolo differs from all other species of Madagascarophis having a gray body color combined with an alternating pattern of pale gray blotches along the vertebral column and the presence of black scales on the vertebral row scales, giving the appearance of a thin black dorsal stripe,” the authors said.
“None of the other snakes in Madagascarophis are as pale and none of them have this distinct pattern,” added lead author Dr. Sara Ruane, of the American Museum of Natural History and Louisiana State University’s Museum of Natural Science.
Dr. Ruane and her colleagues conducted genetic analyses and were surprised to find that Madagascarophis lolo’s next closest relative is a snake called M. fuchsi, which was discovered at a site about 60 miles (100 km) north of Ankarana several years ago. Both were found in rocky, isolated areas.
“I think what’s exciting and important about this work is even though the cat-eyed snakes could be considered one of the most common groups of snakes in Madagascar, there are still new species we don’t know about because a lot of regions are hard to get to and poorly explored,” Dr. Ruane said.
“If this commonly known, wide group of snakes harbors this hidden diversity, what else is out there that we don’t know about?”
In addition, the team mapped the genetic family tree for the entire group of Madagascarophis, which now has five species.
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Sara Ruane et al. 2016. The Cat-eyed Snakes of Madagascar: Phylogeny and Description of a New Species of Madagascarophis (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae) from the Tsingy of Ankarana. Copeia 104 (3): 712-721; doi: 10.1643/CH-15-346
