Trachylepis socotrana (Peters, 1882)

Razzetti, Edoardo, Sindaco, Roberto, Grieco, Cristina, Pella, Francesca, Ziliani, Ugo, Pupin, Fabio, Riservato, Elisa, Pellitteri-Rosa, Daniele, Butikofer, Luca, Suleiman, Ahmed Saeed & Al-Aseily, Badar Awadh, 2011, Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia), Zootaxa 2826, pp. 1-44 : 15

Trachylepis socotrana (Peters, 1882)

Euprepes (Euprepis) socotranus Peters, 1882b: 45 —Locus typicus: “ Socotra ”. Euprepes perrotteti [sic] Duméril & Bibron, 1839 ["var."].— Blanford, 1881: 469. Mabuia [sic] socotrana .— Boulenger, 1887: 168.

Mabria socotran [sic].— Doe, 1992: 131.

Mabuya socotranus [sic].— Showler, 1996: 186.

Mabuya socotrana .—Rösler, 1998: 34.

Mabuya "(?) sp.".—Rösler 1998: 34.

Mabuya soqotranus [sic],— Wranik, 1998b: Tab. 1 . Mabuya socotranus [sic].— Wranik, 1998b: Fig. [151]. Mabuya socotrana .— Wranik, 1998b: 150, Tab. 3.

Mabuya socotrana .— Joger, 2000: 343.

Mabuya cf. socotrana .— Joger, 2000: 343.

Euprepis socotranus .— Mausfeld & Schmitz, 2003: 165. Trachylepis socotrana . — Rösler & Wranik, 2006a: 126.

This large skink is the second commonest diurnal species of Socotra; we collected it from the sea level up to 1180 m a.s.l. (at Skand), but Schätti & Desvoignes (1999) report it up to 1300 m.

Habitat. Found in most of the habitats of Socotra (including many gardens inside Hadiboh city) the species seems to avoid only the open areas that do not offer enough shelter. In Darsa Island we found it in places with dense bush cover and large stones, while in Samha Island we observed it in rocky hills with very scarce vegetation; in Abd al-Kuri Island we found an individual along a small wady with large thorny Acacia bushes.

Original data. Fig. 25. Socotra Island: NE Coast, Homhil, Momi plateau, Timeroh area, Go'o area, Wadi Di- Fa'rhoh, E Noged, Wadi Di Asrhon, Firmihin, Dheroh, Diksam plateau, SW Diksam, Central Noged, Qa'arah area, Qabheten area, Meyhah area, Plateau W of Qabhete, Neet, Shu'ab inland, Shu'ab area, Ma'alah plateau, Qeysoh, Qalansiyah, Qalansiyah inland, Ghubbah area, Mori West, Terr Ditrur, Mouri plain, Wadi Trubah, Skand, Wadi Ayhaft, Kadheb E, Hadiboh plain, Di Lishah area, Kariyah area, Rokeb area. Samha Island. Darsa Island. Abd al- Kuri Island.

Bibliographic data. Blanford (1881), Boulenger (1903), Steindachner (1903), Wranik (1998b), Schätti & Desvoignes (1999), Rösler & Wranik (2004).

General distribution. Endemic to the Socotran Archipelago: Socotra, Samha, Darsa and Abd al-Kuri islands.

Remarks. Molecular studies ( Honda et al., 1999) showed that the large and almost cosmopolitan genus Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826 was paraphyletic; few years later Mausfeld et al. (2002) on the basis of rRNA studies split up this taxon into four genera and Mabuya was restricted to the American species. Mausfeld & Schmitz (2003) then assigned the Socotran species to the Afro-Malagasy clade and termed it Euprepis socotranus . Bauer (2003) showed that the name Euprepis is invalid and that the generic available name for the African and Middle East taxa is Trachylepis Fitzinger, 1843 . According to Mausfeld & Schmitz (2003) the species Trachylepis socotrana is related to the East African and southern Arabian species Trachylepis brevicollis Wiegmann, 1837 .