Ablepharus wahlbergi ( Lawrence 1929:26 ) Ablepharus wahlbergii FitzSimons 1943 :236 Mertens 1955 :74 Mertens 1971 :64 Panaspis ( Afroablepharus ) wahlbergi ( Visser 1984:59 ) Panaspis wahlbergii Branch 1988 :134 Bauer et al. 1993 :134 Branch 1994 :134 Branch 1998 :159 Panaspis Afroblepharus wahlbergi ( Herrmann & Branch 2013:29 ) A new species of African snake-eyed skink (Scincidae: Panaspis) from central and northern Namibia Ceríaco, Luis M. P. Branch, William R. Bauer, Aaron M. Zootaxa 2018 2018-12-04 4527 1 140 150 Ceriaco, Branch & Bauer Ceríaco & Branch & Bauer 2018 [151,726,1046,1072] Reptilia Scincidae Panaspis GBIF Animalia Squamata 2 142 Chordata species namibiana sp. nov.  ( Fig. 1–2) Chresonymy (includes only citations unambiguously pertaining to specimens referable to the new species, or explicitly stating or depicting its geographic range).    Ablepharus wahlbergi( Lawrence 1929:26)    Ablepharus wahlbergii(  FitzSimons 1943:236;  Mertens 1955:74, pl. 23, fig. 143;  Mertens 1971:64)   Panaspis( Afroablepharus) wahlbergi( Visser 1984:59)    Panaspis wahlbergii(  Branch 1988:134;  Bauer et al.1993:134;  Branch 1994:134;  Branch 1998:159).   Panaspissp. nov. ( Griffin 2003:60).   Afroblepharus wahlbergi( Herrmann & Branch 2013:29).  Afroablepharussp. Namibia( Medina et al.2016:411).     Holotype. CAS 206967, unsexed subadult, adjacent to Opuwo Road(D3704),  21 kmN of Palmweg/ Sesfontein Road(D3706) ( 18.9628333° S, 13.758666° E; WGS-84; Fig. 3), Kunene Region, Republic of Namibia, collected by Aaron M. Bauer, A. C. Lamb, J.L. Wright, P. Moler, W.R. Branchand R.D. Babbon  25 July 1998( Fig. 1).    Paratypes. Tenspecimens, all from the Republic of Namibia: MCZ R183767, unsexed subadult, Sesfontein, Paracamp, Kunene Region( 19.13222222° S, 13.5877777° E; WGS-84), collected by Aaron M. Bauerand Anthony P.Russell on  11 December 2002; MCZ R 190318, unsexed subadult, Kamanjab Rest Camp, Kunene Region( 19.629611° S, 14.682417° E; WGS-84) collected by Aaron M. Baueron  29 November 2011;  CM 130371( Fig. 2), unsexed adult, 80 air km E Sesfontein, 60 Airkm WNW Kamanjab, Kunene Region( 19.332654° S, 14.369919° E; WGS-84), collected by Paul Freedet al. on  3 April 1992( Fig. 4); LACM 77840, unsexed adult,  40 kmWNW Grootfontein, Otjozondjupa Region( 19.48333° S, 17.73333° E; WGS-84), collected by R.L. Bezyon  20 November 1973; LACM 77841, 77842, unsexed adults, same collecting data as LACM 77840; PEM R2123, unsexed adult, Kaoko Otavi, Kunene Region( 18.3° S, 13.7° E; WGS-84), collected by G. Mclachlanand J. Spence on  14 October 1965; PEM 2124, unsexed subadult, same collecting data as PEM R2123; PEMR10262, unsexed adult, Okahandja, Otjozondjupa Region( 21.983333° S, 16.916667° E; WGS-84), collected by R. Bradfieldon  23 April 1929; PEMR10273, unsexed adult, same collecting data as PEMR10262.  Additional material.  SMF46570, Farm Beula,  KuneneRegion( 19.6608° S, 14.91185 E; WGS-84);  SMF50620, Okahandja, Otjozondjupa Region, ( 21.983333° S, 16.916667°E; WGS-84);  SMF66144, Warmquellenear Zesfontein,  KuneneRegion( 19.182° S, 13.81384° E; WGS-84);  SMF 67050-02,  60mi.east of Okahandja, Otjozondjupa Region( 21.623° S, 17.64941° E; WGS-84); SAM 0 17483, Kaoko Otavi,  KuneneRegion( 18.3°S, 13.7°E; WGS-84); SAM 0 17557, Okorosave,  KuneneRegion( 18.17° S, 13.8° E; WGS-84); SAM 0 46548, Tsumeb Townlands( 19.23° S, 17.72° E; WGS-84), Oshikoto Region; PEM  R8845, 2km south of Grootfontein, Otjozondjupa Region( 19.3206° S, 18.39306° E, WGS-84); TM 85249, Farm Uisib422, Otjozondjupa Region( 19.5531° S, 17.21667° E, WGS-84); SMW 1946, Namutoni, Oshikoto Region( 18.80776° S, 16.940231° E, WGS-84), SMW 1947, Kaoko Otavi,  KuneneRegion( 18.3° S, 13.7°E; WGS-84); SMW 1948, Klein Windhoek, Khomas Region( 22.578° S, 17.10083° E, WGS-84); SMW 1949, Windhoek, Khomas Region( 22.5613° S, 17.07214° E; WGS-84); SMW 5700, Barab on Palmwag702,  KuneneRegion( 19.8214° S, 13.7614° E; WGS-84); SMW 6471, Warmquelle,  KuneneRegion( 19.182° S, 13.81384° E; WGS-84).   Diagnosis.  Panaspis namibiana  sp. nov.can be distinguished from other members of the genus by the following combination of characteristics: 1) absence of supranasals; 2) ablepharine eye (as defined by Greer 1974); 3) frontoparietals fused; 4) dorsum coppery-brown, with a dorsolateral light stripe extending approximately to midbody, and a thin darker band starting on the temporals and extending to midbody; 5) absence of rows of light spots on the neck; 6) absence of a white ventrolateral stripe.   Description of the holotype.Unsexed subadult in good condition. Arrangement and relative size of head, body and tail scales typical for  Panaspis. Robust, cylindrical body with well-developed pentadactyl limbs. Fore- and hind-limbs do not overlap when adpressed against the body. SVL 29.6 mm, tail length 38.6 mm. Head length 5.9 mm, with relatively acuminate snout (HL 184% HW). Other relevant measurements are presented in Table 1. Rostral wider than high, and visible from above. Nasals widely separated behind rostral by frontonasal. Frontonasal acuminate anteriorly, wider than long. Nostrils small, set posteriorly in the nasals but not bordering the postnasal. Prefrontals in contact with one another (atypical considering the type series), hexagonal, contacting frontonasal, loreals, first supraocular, first supraciliary and frontal. Two loreals, the posterior margins of the largest loreal border preocular, which is wider than high. Frontal length shorter than distance between anterior tip of frontal and tip of snout; frontal in contact with prefrontals anteriorly, two supraoculars (one on each side) and frontoparietals. Frontoparietals fused, in contact with the frontal, three supraoculars, parietals and interparietal. Frontoparietal plus interparietal length 2.2 times length of the frontal. Interparietal quadrangular with visible parietal foramen in anterior part; parietals 1.2 times larger than frontoparietals and contacting each other at the anterior point of the interparietal. Parietals in contact. A pair of large, broad nuchals collectively bordered by a total of nine dorsals. Supraoculars three. Supraciliaries three (left side) and four (right side), third largest. Pretemporals two. Tympanum visible, approximately one fifth the height of the eye. Supralabials six, the fifth and sixth being the suboculars. Ablepharine eye. Infralabials five. Postmental bordering five scales (mental, two primary chin-shields, and one infralabial on each side). Ventral scales smooth. MSR 22, SAD 58, SAV 55. Limbs with five digits; scales on soles of hands and feet smooth. Relative length of digits of manus IV=III>II=V>I relative length of digits of pes IV>III>II>I>V. Finger-IV scales 9 (right side), Toe-IV scales 13 (right side). Tail long, robust and tapering smoothly. In preservative, background color of flanks and upper side of head, neck, dorsum, legs and tail is coppery brown, with a darker dot in the anterior part of each scale. Posteriorly the tail is lighter, with disjunct dark speckles. A beige stripe, less than one scale wide, limited by the dorsal background color above and by a thin stripe of darker brown below (especially evident under the anterior part of eye), extends from the temporals and runs along the dorsolateral surface to the midbody. Areas below the dark brown stripe become lighter, until they reach the ventral side, which is beige. Supralabials light beige anteriorly and posteriorly, with strong coppery brown markings in the middle. This pattern extends to the infralabials. Venter uniformly light-beige, as are the palmar regions of hands and feet.   FIGURE 2.Life photo of  Panaspis namibiana  sp. nov.( CM 130371, paratype), from Kunene Region. Photo by Paul Freed.  Variation.Variaton in scalation and body measurements of the paratypesof  Panaspis namibiana  sp. nov.is reported in Table 1. The majority of the paratypesagree entirely with the holotype, except regarding the contact between the prefrontals, which are separated in paratypes CM 130371,  LACM 77841,  LACM 77842,  PEMR10273, and narrowly separated in  LACM 77840,  PEM R2124and  PEMR 10262.  Comparison with other South and Southwestern African  Panaspis.As the molecular framework of Medina et al. (2016)provided evidence of the independence of the  P. namibianalineage from all other taxa, we here restrict our morphological comparisons to those named congeners occurring in Namibia, Angola, Botswanaand South Africa. The extreme morphological conservatism of  Panaspislimits diagnostic characters for most species (except  P. cabindae) to subtle features, chiefly related to coloration pattern. Comparing  P. namibiana  sp. nov.with  P. cabindae, the newly described species can be easily distinguished by not having supranasals (present in  P. cabindae), by having a ablepharine eye (preablepharine eye in  P. cabindae), and by having the frontoparietals fused (divided in  P. cabindae). In comparison with  P. wahlbergi,  P. namibiana  sp. nov.can be distinguished by its coloration, namely by the lack of the broad black lateral stripe and bordering ventrolateral white stripe extending from the supralabials through the ear to the groin (males) or terminating behind the shoulder (females).  Panaspis namibiana  sp. nov.can be distinguished from nominotypical  P. maculicollison the basis of the lack of black patch extending from ear to just beyond the shoulder with two or three vertical or diagonal rows of white spots.   Distribution.The newly described species is currently only known from central and northern Namibia. Confirmed localities are in three clusters, one in the northwest above the Western Escarpment from Sesfontein in the south to near Opuwo in the north, one in the Otavi Highlands, and a third in central Namibiain the KhomasHochland ( Fig. 3). It is likely that the species occurs in the intervening regions at higher elevations where appropriate habitat is available, but further sampling is needed to confirm its presence.  Habitat and Natural History notes.With the exception of Paracamp, near Sesfontein (~ 650 m), all localities are above 1200 m. The species is terrestrial and is typically found under leaf litter or other debris. Although most specimens were captured by day, MCZ R183767 was active in the leaf litter well after sunset ( Fig. 4).   Specimen CAS MCZ MCZ CM LACM LACM LACM PEM PEM PEM PEM  206967 R-183767 R-  190318 13037177840 77841 77842R 2123 R 2124 R 10262 R 10273  ( holotype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) ( paratype) LocalityOpuwo Paracamp, Kamanjab 80 kmE 40 km 40 km 40 kmKaoko Otavi Kaoko Otavi Okahandja Okahandja road, 21 kmSesfontein Sesfontein, WNW WNW WNW N of 60 kmGrootfontein Grootfontein Grootfontein Palmweg- WNW Sesfontein Kamanjab road SVL29.6 30.8 30.1 35.6 39.8 34.8 33.0 35.4 29.3 42.6 38.7  TL38.6 Broken Broken Broken Broken Broken Broken Broken Broken 50.0 55.7  HL5.9 5.6 5.9 5.7 5.5 5.5 6.0 5.7 5.5 5.8 5.6  HH2.5 2.5 2.0 2.2 2.2 2.4 2.3 2.6 2.3 2.6 3.2  HW3.2 3.6 3.9 3.1 3.2 3.7 3.8 3.5 3.2 3.6 3.8  LA1.8 2.5 2.3 1.7 1.7 2.0 2.0 2.5 2.1 3.1 3.3  LFA1.6 2.2 1.8 2.3 2.3 2.5 2.8 2.3 2.1 2.6 2.8  LL3.5 3.5 3.3 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.9 3.2 3.1 3.5 3.8  LFL2.8 3.3 2.5 4.1 4.0 4.5 4.0 3.1 3.0 3.3 3.5  LD18.3 19.0 18.4 22.1 25.0 20.4 20.1 20.7 17.3 24.8 23.0  ED1.2 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.1 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.0 1.2 1.2   ET2.7 2.3 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.6  ES2.3 2.3 2.2 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.2 2.7 2.4 2.3 2.5  MSR26 25 24 25 25 25 26 24 24 24 22  SAV64 65 63 64 67 64 65 67 56 66 59  SAD60 64 60 63 65 63 64 68 57 68 58  LUFT15 16 14 15 14 15 16 13 14 15 -  LUFF 11 11 10 12 10 1010 11 9 98  SC (Left/4/4 4/4 4/4 5/5 4/4 4/4 4/5 4/4 4/4 5/5 4/4 Right) SL6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 6 6/7  CPIn contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact In contact  CPFIn contact In contact In contact Separated Narrowly Separated Separated Broad Narrowly Narrowly Separated separated contact separated separated   Etymology.The specific epithet “  namibiana” refers to the Republic of Namibia, to which the species is apparently endemic, and is applied here as a substantive in apposition. We propose the English vernacular name “Namibian Snake-Eyed Skink.” 2029172503 1998-07-25 CAS Aaron M. Bauer, A. C & A. C. Lamb & J. L. Wright & P. Moler & W. R. Branch & R. D. Babb Namibia -18.962833 Opuwo Road 1 13.758666 Sesfontein Road 2 142 CAS 206967 1 Kunene holotype 2029172211 [199,1087,1573,1598] MCZ Namibia Ten 2 142 R183767 1 paratype 2029172021 2002-12-11 MCZ Aaron M. Bauer & Anthony P. Namibia -19.132223 Paracamp 1 13.587778 Sesfontein 2 142 R190318 1 Kunene paratype 2029171235 2011-11-29 CM Aaron M. Bauer Namibia -19.62961 Kamanjab Rest Camp 1 14.682417 2 142 1 Kunene paratype 2029170860 1992-04-03 LACM E Sesfontein & Paul Freed Namibia -19.332655 Kamanjab 1 14.369919 Air 2 142 LACM 77840 1 Kunene paratype 2029169700 1973-11-20 LACM R. L. Bezy Namibia -19.48333 40 km WNW Grootfontein 1 17.73333 2 142 LACM 77841, 77842 1 Otjozondjupa paratype 2029170859 [627,1432,1825,1850] PEM Namibia 2 142 LACM 77840, R2123 1 Otjozondjupa paratype 2029170184 1965-10-14 PEM G. Mclachlan Namibia -18.3 Kaoko Otavi 7660 13.7 2 142 PEM 2124 1 Kunene paratype 2029172020 [533,1332,1897,1922] PEM Namibia 2 142 R2123 1 Kunene paratype 2029170182 1929-04-23 PEM R. Bradfield Namibia -21.983334 Okahandja 1 16.916668 2 142 1 Otjozondjupa paratype 2029171416 [455,1047,1969,1994] PEM Namibia 2 142 1 Otjozondjupa paratype 2029170776 [455,1366,2005,2030] SMF -19.6608 Farm Beula 5 14.91185 2 142 1 Kunene 2029171927 SMF 3 143 -21.983334 Okahandja 1 16.916668 2 142 1 Otjozondjupa 2029170483 SMF -19.182 Zesfontein 55 13.81384 Warmquelle 3 143 1 Kunene 2029172309 SAM -21.623 Okahandja 55 17.64941 3 143 SMF 67050-02, 60 1 Otjozondjupa 2029171926 SAM -18.3 Kaoko Otavi 7660 13.7 3 143 1 Kunene 2029171139 [454,1332,260,285] SAM -18.17 Okorosave 5307 13.8 3 143 1 Kunene 2029172019 PEM -19.23 Tsumeb Townlands 763 17.72 3 143 1 Oshikoto 2029170183 TM -19.3206 Grootfontein 5 18.39306 3 143 R8845, 2 1 Otjozondjupa 2029171417 SMW -19.5531 Farm Uisib 5 17.21667 3 143 1 Otjozondjupa 2029171925 SMW -18.80776 Namutoni 1 16.940231 3 143 1 Oshikoto 2029171236 [350,1163,404,429] SMW -18.3 Kaoko Otavi 7660 13.7 3 143 1 Kunene 2029171817 SMW -22.578 Klein Windhoek 55 17.10083 3 143 1 Khomas 2029170265 SMW -22.5613 Windhoek 5 17.07214 3 143 1 Khomas 2029172603 SMW -19.8214 Barab on Palmwag 7 13.7614 3 143 1 Kunene 2029171717 [225,1029,511,536] -19.182 Warmquelle 55 13.81384 3 143 1 Kunene 2029172110 [1010,1181,1862,1886] LACM 4 144 LACM 77841 1 2029170481 [1195,1362,1862,1886] LACM 4 144 LACM 77842 1 2029172018 PEM 4 144 1 2029170778 [550,712,1898,1922] LACM 4 144 LACM 77840 1 2029170775 [722,862,1898,1922] PEM 4 144 R2124 1 2029170777 [916,1080,1897,1922] PEM 4 144 1