Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis

Baptista, Ninda L., António, Telmo & Branch, William R., 2019, The herpetofauna of Bicuar National Park and surroundings, southwestern Angola: a preliminary checklist, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 203) 13 (2), pp. 96-130 : 115

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13238919
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/7E2D87A6-FF9F-FFC8-D610-FAC748E6FCC8
treatment provided by	Felipe (2024-07-03 21:20:31, last updated 2024-08-06 15:10:44)
scientific name	Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis
status

Treatment

Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis complex

Snake-eyed Skink ( Fig. 22A–B View Fig )

Material: NB516 ( T 3); NB548 ( T 1); NB549 ( T 2).

Comment: Small leaf-litter inhabiting skinks have numerous cryptic lineages in southern and eastern Africa ( Medina et al. 2016). Historically, Bocage (1895) report- ed on material from Caconda and Cahata collected by Anchieta, and recently P. maculicollis was recorded from southeastern Angola ( Conradie et al. 2016). A population of “ P. wahlbergi ” in northern Namibia was shown to form part of the P. maculicollis complex ( Medina et al. 2016) and was subsequently described as a new species, Panaspis namibiana ( Ceríaco et al. 2018a) . Snake-eyed skinks recently collected in BNP were assigned to P. aff. namibiana ( Butler et al. 2019) . BNP specimens from this study have fused anterior parietals, conforming to the P. wahlbergi complex, but prefrontals are well separated (see Fig. 22B View Fig ), distinguishing them from P. namibiana ( Ceríaco et al. 2018a) . The taxonomic status of the BNP population and its affinities to the P. maculicollis or P. wahlbergi radiations requires further study, as do other Angolan populations from Humpata, Quilengues, and the Cuanza Sul escarpment (Vaz Pinto and Baptista, unpub. data).

References

Bocage JVB. 1895. Herpetologie d'Angola et du Congo. Imprimerie Nationale, Lisbonne, Portugal. 203 p.

Butler BO, Ceriaco LPM, Marques MP, Bandeira S, Julio T, Heinicke MP, Bauer AM. 2019. Herpetological survey of Huila Province, southwest Angola, including first records from Bicuar National Park. Herpetological Review 50 (2): 225 - 240.

Ceriaco LMP, Branch WR, Bauer AM. 2018 a. A new species of African snake-eyed skink (Scincidae: Panaspis) from central and northern Namibia. Zootaxa 4527: 140 - 150.

Conradie W, Bills R, Branch WR. 2016. The herpetofauna of the Cubango, Cuito, and lower Cuando river catchments of south-eastern Angola. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 10 (2) [Special Section]: 6 - 36 (e 126).

Medina MF, Bauer AM, Branch WR, Schmitz A, Conradie W, Nagy ZT, Hibbits TJ, Ernst R, Portik DM, Nielsen SV, et al. 2016. Molecular phylogeny of Panaspis and Afroablepharus skinks (Squamata: Scincidae) in the savannas of sub-Saharan Africa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 100: 409 - 423.