Zygaspis nigra Broadley and Gans, 1969

Conradie, Werner, Keates, Chad, Verburgt, Luke, Baptista, Ninda L., Harvey, James, Júlio, Timóteo & Neef, Götz, 2022, Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Angolan Okavango-Cuando-Zambezi River drainages. Part 2: Lizards (Sauria), chelonians, and crocodiles, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 322) 16 (2), pp. 181-214 : 189

Zygaspis nigra Broadley and Gans, 1969

Black Round-headed Worm Lizard ( Fig. 7 , Map 6) Material (3 specimens): PEM R23564–5, Samanunga village, -12.93250° 18.81476°, 1,363 m asl; PEM R23984, Lungwebungu River crossing, -12.58020° 18.66773°, 1,298 m asl. Additional records: Quembo River source, -13.13586° 19.04709°, 1,368 m asl (stomach contents of Xenocalamus mechowii – PEM R23463). Description: Male (PEM R23564) with four precloacal pores; hemipenis bifurcated and extending to 6–7 th caudal annuli. Female (PEM R23564) with truncated tail at 7 th annulus. Adults have distinct black bars, while juveniles are much lighter in color; 16–17 dorsal segments per body annulus; 12 ventral segments per body annulus; 189–194 body annuli; 42–43 caudal annuli, caudal autonomy site at 7 th caudal annulus; 3 supralabials; 3 infralabials. Largest female: 216.0 + 8t mm (PEM R23565); largest male: 232.0 + 41.0 mm (PEM R23564). Habitat and natural history notes: One female contained three elongated eggs (20 x 5 mm). Two specimens were excavated by local farmers while preparing agricultural fields. Comments: Only two species of Zygaspis are known from scattered records in southern and eastern Angola ( Marques et al. 2018; Baptista et al. 2019; Butler et al. 2019). Zygaspis nigra was originally described from western Zambia, with only a few records from eastern Angola and the Zambezi Region in northeastern Namibia ( Broadley and Gans 1969; Pietersen et al. 2021). Historically this species is only known from three localities in eastern Angola ( Marques et al. 2018), so these new records double the number of known localities from Angola.

Figures

Fig. 7. Adult Zygaspis nigra (PEM R23564) from Samanunga village. Photo by Werner Conradie.