Pachycalamus brevis Günther, 1881

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 : 15-16

Pachycalamus brevis Günther, 1881

Pachycalamus brevis Günther, 1881: 462 —Locus typicus: “ Socotra ”. Pachycalamus brevis .— Peters, 1882a: 583.

Pachycalamus brevis .— Gans, 1960: 178.

Pachealamus [sic] brevis .— Doe, 1992: 131. Pachycalamus brevis .— Hallermann, 1998: 201. Pachycalamus brevis .— Kearney, 2003: 13 (fig. 8). Pachycalamus brevis .— Gans, 2005: 43.

A burrowing species, rarely detected because of its mainly fossorial habits.

Habitat. It can be observed under stones or beneath rotten vegetation in habitats with rather deep soils (forested valleys, palm grooves along wadis, bushlands). It was reported also among droppings of goats ( Schätti & Desvoignes 1999). We have collected it from 20 m of altitude at Wadi Qishn to 380 m south of Rokeb, but the species was collected at Diksam (695 m) by H. Rösler (Rösler & Wranik, 2004) and Schätti & Desvoignes (1999) cited it from Homhil at 700 m.

Original data. Fig. 26. Go'o area, Qeysoh, Wadi Ayhaft, Hadiboh plain, Di Lishah area, Rokeb area.

Bibliographic data. Boulenger (1903), Steindachner (1903), Loveridge (1941), Gans (1960), Schätti & Gasperetti (1994), Wranik (1998b), Schätti & Desvoignes (1999), Rösler & Wranik (2004).

General distribution. Endemic to Socotra Island.

Remarks. Our record from Qeysoh palm grove is the first from the western part of the island.