Acontias
| Acontias | |
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| Acontias percivali | |
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| Subfamily: | Acontinae
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| Genus: | Acontias Cuvier, 1817
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Acontias is a genus of limbless skinks, the lance skinks, (family Scincidae) in the African subfamily Acontinae.[1] Most are small animals, but the largest member of the genus is Acontias plumbeus at approximately 40 cm (16 in) snout-vent length.[1] All members of this genus are live-bearing, sandswimmers, with fused eyelids. A recent review [2] moved species that were formerly placed in the genera Typhlosaurus, Acontophiops, and Microacontias into this genus, as together these form a single branch in the tree of life. This new concept of Acontias is a sister lineage to Typhlosaurus, and these two genera are the only genera within the subfamily Acontinae.[2]
Species
These 21 species are recognized:[3]
- Acontias aurantiacus (W. Peters, 1854)
- Acontias bicolor (Hewitt, 1929)
- Acontias breviceps Essex, 1925 – shorthead lance skink
- Acontias cregoi (Boulenger, 1903)
- Acontias gariepensis (V. FitzSimons, 1941)
- Acontias gracilicauda Essex, 1925
- Acontias jappi (Broadley, 1968)
- Acontias kgalagadi (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
- Acontias lineatus W. Peters, 1879
- Acontias litoralis Broadley & Greer, 1969
- Acontias meleagris (Linnaeus, 1758) – Cape legless skink
- Acontias namaquensis Hewitt, 1938
- Acontias occidentalis V. FitzSimons, 1941
- Acontias orientalis Hewitt, 1938
- Acontias percivali Loveridge, 1935 – Percival's lance skink
- Acontias plumbeus Bianconi, 1849
- Acontias poecilus Bourquin & Lambiris, 1996
- Acontias richardi (Jacobsen, 1987)
- Acontias rieppeli (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
- Acontias schmitzi Wagner, Broadley & Bauer, 2012
- Acontias tristis F. Werner, 1910
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates the species was originally described in a genus other than Acontias.
Gallery
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Acontias plumbeus
References
- ^ a b Branch 2004.
- ^ a b Lamb, Trip; Sayantan Biswas; Aaron M. Bauer [in French] (2010). "A phylogenetic reassessment of African fossorial skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae): evidence for parallelism and polyphyly". Zootaxa. 2657: 33–46.
- ^ The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
Further reading
- Boulenger GA. 1887. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume III. ... Scincidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 575 pp. + Plates I-XXVII. (Genus Acontias, p. 424).
- Branch, Bill. 2004. Field Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised Edition. Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Genus Acontias, p. 132).
- Cuvier G. 1817. Le règne animale distribué d'après son organisation, pour servir de base a l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction a l'anatomie comparée. Tome II, contenant les reptiles, les poissons, les mollusques et les annélides. Paris: Déterville. xviii + 532 pp. (Acontias, new subgenus, p. 60). (in French).