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Trachylepis varia (PETERS, 1867)

IUCN Red List - Trachylepis varia - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaScincidae, Mabuyinae (Mabuyini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Variable skink 
SynonymEuprepes (Euprepis) varius PETERS 1867: 20
Euprepes (Euprepis) Isselii PETERS 1871: 567t
Euprepes varius — FISCHER 1884: 20
Mabuia varia — BOULENGER 1895: 168
Mabuia varia — NEUMANN 1905
Mabuya varia varia — LOVERIDGE 1936: 69
Mabuya varia nyikae LOVERIDGE 1953: 211
Euprepes (Euprepis) Isselii PETERS 1871: 567
Mabuya varia var. isselii — LOVERIDGE 1923
Mabuia varia isseii — CALABRESI 1923: 103 (in error)
Mabuia varia — CALABRESI 1923
Mabuya varia varia — HELLMICH 1957: 66
Mabuya varia — AUERBACH 1987: 111
Mabuya varia isselii — LANZA 1988
Mabuya varia — GREER et al. 2000
Euprepis varius — MAUSFELD et al. 2002
Trachylepis varia — BAUER 2003
Mabuya varia — CIMATTI 2006
Mabuya isselii — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2006: 70
Mabuya isselii — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 391
Mabuya varia — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 403
Trachylepis isselii — SINDACO et al. 2012
Trachylepis varia — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 148
Trachylepis varia — BATES 2018
Trachylepis issellii — SPAWLS et al. 2023 (in error)
Trachylepis varia — STANDER 2023: 304 
DistributionNE Namibia, Botswana, E Republic of South Africa (Eastern Cape etc.), Eswatini (Swaziland), Zimbabwe, SW Mozambique, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, E/S Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Malawi, Ethiopia, Eritrea; elevation up to at least 10,458 ft (Mt Kineti).

Type locality: Tete, Mozambique, ca. -16.145° S, 33.61° E(based on PETERS 1854).

isselii: Eritrea; Type locality: “Keren, im Bogoslande”, Eritrea [Isseli]

nyikae: Type locality: "Nyika Plateau above Nchenachena, at 7000 feet, northwest of Lake Nyasa, Nyasaland" [Malawi].  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesLectotype: ZMB 64341, designated by Weinell & Bauer 2017 (Fig. 9); from syntypes ZMB 1231, ZMB 64341 (formerly ZMB 1231a), and ZMB 64342 (some of which may be members of different clades).
Syntypes: ZMB 7272, MSNG 27778 [isseli]
Holotype: lost (destroyed by fire) [albo-punctatus]
Holotype: lost (destroyed by fire) [angolensis]
Holotype: MCZ R-50860 [nyikae]
Syntype: USNM 10997, but questionable type status [Euprepes olivierii] 
DiagnosisUnfortunately 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 1563 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy partly after BOULENGER 1887, LOVERIDGE 1957: 212. WEINELL & BAUER 2017 removed Euprepes (Mabuya) laevigatus PETERS 1869 and Euprepes damaranus PETERS 1870 from the synonymy of T. varia. The status of Euprepes isselii needs further analysis as none of the papers cited here seems to have analyzed any significant number of specimens to clearly distinguish it from T. varia.

Similar species: T. striata

Distribution: not corrected for the removal of T. damarana and T. laevigata. Weinell & Bauer 2017 did not present a revised range for T. varia. A recent molecular and morphological review (Weinell and Bauer 2018, Weinell et al. 2019) demonstrated that true T. varia is absent from Angola, with the Angolan “varia” belonging to a separate clade that extends from Angola to Zambia. As noted by Weinell and Bauer (2018) it is likely that the names Euprepes olivieri var. albopunctatus Bocage, 1867 and Euprepes angolensis Bocage, 1872 apply to this clade and are valid species but no formal (updated) description has been published. Note that Marques et al. 2018 consider Euprepis angolensis as a probable junior synonym of T. albopunctata. The latter has been considered by some to refer to the same species as Mabuia striata angolensis Monard, 1937 (see Trachylepis monardi account). For a map see Stephens et al. 2022: Fig. 2 and Fig. 5. Not in Angola fide Ceriaco et al. 2024 (revision Angolan Trachylepis). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin varia, colored; party colored, variegated. 
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