Acontias kgalagadi (LAMB, BISWAS & BAUER, 2010)

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Higher Taxa	Scincidae, Acontiinae (Acontidae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Kalahari Burrowing Skink, Kgalagadi Legless Skink
Synonym	Typhlosaurus lineatus BOULENGER 1887: 432 Typhlosaurus lineatus — WITTE & LAURENT 1943: 22 Typhlosaurus lineatus — FITZSIMONS & BRAIN 1958 Typhlosaurus lineatus lineatus — BROADLEY 1968: 12 Typhlosaurus lineatus — HUEY et al. 1974 Typhlosaurus lineatus lineatus — AUERBACH 1987: 105 Acontias kgalagadi kgalagadi LAMB et al. 2010 (nom. nov.) Acontias kgalagadi kgalagadi — BATES et al. 2014: 242 Acontias kgalagadi — ZHAO et al. 2023
Distribution	W Namibia, Botswana (Kalahari), CN Republic of South Africa (N Transvaal, N Cape), E Angola Type locality: “"Cape of Good Hope"
Reproduction	ovoviviparous
Types	Holotype: BMNH 69.2.4.1, collector unknown (Typhlosaurus lineatus)
Diagnosis	Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1294 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Habitat: Burrowing, confined to the sandveld. Nomenclature: A. kgalaagadi is a replacement name for this species due to transfer to Acontias, where lineatus is a junior homonym. Limb morphology: Limbless. Distribution: not in Zambia fide WAGNER et al. 2012. Synonymy: When transferred to Acontias, Typhlosaurus lineatus Boulenger 1887— originally described and, until now, treated as Typhlosaurus lineatus (e.g., FitzSimons 1943; Branch 1998) and Acontophiops lineatus Sternfeld 1912—are junior secondary homonyms of A. lineatus Peters, 1879. As no junior synonyms exist for Acontias (formerly Typhlosaurus) lineatus (De Witte & Laurent 1943; FitzSimons 1943; Broadley 1968), Lamb et al. 2010 proposed Acontias kgalagadi nom. nov. as a replacement name.
Etymology	Named after its distribution in the Kalahari (”Kgalagadi”). Note that this is a new name (nomen novum) for A. lineatus.
References	Auerbach, R.D. 1987. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Mokwepa Consultants, Botswana, 295 pp. Bates, M. F. 1988. Geographical Distribution - Typhlosaurus lineatus lineatus. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (34): 50-50 - get paper here Bates, M.F.; Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M.; Burger, M., Marais, J.; Alexander, G.J. & de Villliers, M.S. (eds.) 2014. Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, 512 pp. Boulenger, G. A. 1887. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) III. Lacertidae, Gerrhosauridae, Scincidae, Anelytropsidae, Dibamidae, Chamaeleontidae. London: 575 pp. - get paper here Brain, C.K. 1959. Notes on the Breeding of the South African Skink Typhlosaurus lineatus. Copeia 1959 (1): 70-71 - get paper here Broadley, D.G. 1968. A review of the African genus Typhlosaurus Wiegmann (Sauria: Scincidae). Arnoldia (Rhodesia) 3 (36): 1-20 Conradie W and 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 - get paper here Conradie W, Keates C, Verburgt L, Baptista NL, Harvey J, Júlio T, Neef G. 2022. Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Angolan Okavango-Cuando-Zambezi River drainages. Part 2: Lizards (Sauria), chelonians, and crocodiles. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 16(2): 181–214 (e322) - get paper here Conradie, Werner and Sven Bourquin. 2013. Geographic distribution: Acontias kgalagadi kgalagadi (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010) Striped Legless Skink. African Herp News (60): 29-30 - get paper here Fitzsimons, V.F.M.; Brain, C.K. 1958. A Short account of the Reptiles of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Koedoe, 1(1): 99-104 - get paper here Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - get paper here Huey, R. B.; Pianka, E. R.; Egan, M. E.; Coons, L. W. 1974. Ecological shifts in sympatry: kalahari fossorial lizards (Typhlosaurus). Ecology 55 (2): 304-316 - get paper here Lamb, T.; Biswas, S. & Bauer, A.M. 2010. A phylogenetic reassessment of African fossorial skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae): evidence for parallelism and polyphyly. Zootaxa 2657: 33–46 - get paper here Marques, Mariana P.; Luis M. P. Ceríaco , David C. Blackburn , and Aaron M. Bauer 2018. Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola -- Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840–2017). Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (Ser. 4) 65: 1-501 (Supplement II) Pianka, Eric R. 1971. Lizard species density in the Kalahari Desert. Ecology 52 (6): 1024-1029 - get paper here Tolley, K.A., Conradie, W., Pietersen, D.W., Weeber, J., Burger, M. & Alexander, G.J. (eds) 2023. Conservation status of the reptiles of South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Suricata 10. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria - get paper here Wagner, Philipp; Donald G. Broadley, and Aaron M. Bauer 2012. A New Acontine Skink from Zambia (Scincidae: Acontias Cuvier, 1817). Journal of Herpetology 46 (4): 494-502. - get paper here Witte, G.F. de & R. LAURENT 1943. Contribution à la systématique des formes dégradées de la famille des Scincidae apparentées au genre Scelotes Fitzinger. Mém. Mus. r. Hist. nat. Belg. (sér.2) 26: 44 pp. - get paper here Zhao, Z., Conradie, W., Pietersen, D.W., Jordaan, A., Nicolau, G., Edwards, S., Riekert, S., Heideman, N. 2023. Diversification of the African legless skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Family Scincidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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