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Acontias lineatus PETERS, 1879

IUCN Red List - Acontias lineatus - Least Concern, LC

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Higher TaxaScincidae, Acontiinae (Acontidae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Striped Dwarf Legless Skink, Lined Lance Skink
E: Coastal Dwarf Legless Skink [litoralis]
E: Namaqualand Dwarf Legless Skink [tristis]
E: Gray’s Dwarf Legless Skink [grayi] 
SynonymAcontias lineatus PETERS 1879: 774
Acontias lineatus — WERNER 1910: 351
Acontias lineatus — HEWITT 1937: 46
Acontias lineatus orangensis HEWITT 1938: 47
Acontias lineatus — BAUER et al. 1995: 60
Acontias lineatus — DANIELS et al. 2005
Microacontias lineatus lineatus — DANIELS et al. 2006
Acontias lineatus — LAMB et al. 2010
Microacontias lineatus — PYRON & BURBRINK 2013
Acontias lineatus — BATES et al. 2014: 243
Acontias lineatus — ZHAO et al. 2023

Acontias litoralis BROADLEY & GREER 1969: 25
Acontias lineatus BOULENGER 1905: 254 (part.)
Acontias litoralis — WHITING et al. 2003
Microacontias litoralis — DANIELS et al. 2006
Acontias litoralis — LAMB et al. 2010

Acontias lineatus var. tristis WERNER 1910: 352
Acontias lineatus var. tristis — BROADLEY & GREER 1969: 24
Acontias lineatus tristis — DANIELS et al. 2002
Microacontias lineatus tristis — DANIELS et al. 2006
Acontias tristis — LAMB et al. 2010

Acontias lineatus grayi BOULENGER 1887
Acontias grayi BOULENGER 1887: 428
Acontias lineatus grayi — BROADLEY & GREER 1969: 24
Microacontias lineatus grayi — DANIELS et al. 2006
Acontias grayi — LAMB et al. 2010
Acontias grayi — BATES et al. 2014: 241 
DistributionRepublic of South Africa (W/N Cape, into Little and Great Namaqualand), S Namibia

Type locality: “Hantam (Südafrika)” [= Northern Cape Province, South Africa].

litoralis: Republic of South Africa (W Cape coastal strip from Daberas, south to Elandsbaai); Type locality: “5 miles east of Port Nolloth”

tristis: Republic of South Africa (Northern Cape Province); Type locality: Steinkopf, Little Namaqualand.

grayi: Republic of South Africa (Western Cape); Type locality: Cape of Good Hope.  
Reproductionovovivparous 
TypesSyntypes: ZMB 6714 (5 specimens)
Lectotype: PEM R4440 (formerly AMG 2210) [orangensis]
Holotype: DNMNH (= TM) 18002; paratypes: TM, UM [litoralis]
Holotype: ZMB (not identified, but given as Schultze number 642 by Werner), Steinkopf, collected L. Schultze, vi.1904. Not listed by Bauer et al. (2003), but the types for the other species described in the same paper are lodged in ZMB [tristis]
Holotype: BMNH XIX.1.a [grayi] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (Characterization) of the (sub-) genus Microacontias: Small slender bodied, with a snout vent length (SVL) ranging from 119 mm to 148 mm, tail lattened below, transparent lower eyelid, the enlarged flat rostrum, four to five upper labials, midbody scale rows 12–14. Restricted to the Succulent and Nama Karoo biome along the South African west coast [from DANIELS et al. 2006].


Additional details (3319 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentLimb morphology: Limbless.

Type species: Acontias lineatus is the type species of the genus Microacontias DANIELS et al. 2006. However, Microacontias has been synonymized with Acontias by LAMB et al. 2010.

Synonymy: Acontias lineatus grayi BOULENGER 1887 has been treated as a valid species, A. grayi by some recent authors. However, Zhao et al. 2023 suggested to synonymized A. grayi, A. litoralis, and A. tristis with A. lineatus. Fitzsimons 1943: 251 also listed tristis as a synonym of Acontias lineatus lineatus.

NCBI taxonID: 156903 [litoralis]
NCBI taxonID: 357125 [tristis] 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “linea”, meaning stripe or line.

A. litoralis was named after the Latin noun litus, litoris, meaning "shore", referring to the habitat of the species. 
References
  • Bates, M.F. 1993. Geographical Distribution - Acontias lineatus lineatus. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (42): 41-41 - 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.
  • Bauer, A.M., and Branch, W.R. 2003. The herpetofauna of the Richtersveld National Park, Northern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. Herpetological Natural History 8: 111-160 [2001]
  • Bauer, A.M.; Günther,R. & Klipfel,M. 1995. The herpetological contributions of Wilhelm C.H. Peters (1815-1883). SSAR Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology, 714 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
  • Branch, William R. 1993. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 144 S.
  • Broadley, D. G. and Greer, A. E. 1969. A revision of the genus Acontias Cuvier (Sauria: Scincidae). Arnoldia Rhodesia 4 (26): 1-29.
  • CONRADIE, WERNER; WILLIAM R. BRANCH, & GILLIAN WATSON 2019. Type specimens in the Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa, including the historically important Albany Museum collection. Part 2: Reptiles (Squamata). Zootaxa 4576 (1): 001–045 - get paper here
  • Daniels, S. R., N. Heideman, M. Hendricks, and B. Willson. 2002. A molecular phylogeny for the South African limbless lizard taxa of the subfamily Acontinae (Sauria: Scincidae) with special emphasis on relationships within Acontias. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 24: 315-323 - get paper here
  • Daniels, S.R.; Neil J.L. Heideman, Martin G.J. Hendricks, Mphalile E. Mokone, Keith A. Crandall 2005. Unraveling evolutionary lineages in the limbless fossorial skink genus Acontias (Sauria: Scincidae): are subspecies equivalent systematic units? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 645–654 - get paper here
  • Daniels, Savel R.; Neil J. L. Heideman, Martin G. J. Hendricks, Keith A. Crandall 2006. Taxonomic subdivisions within the fossorial skink subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae) reconsidered: a multilocus perspective. Zoologica Scripta 35 (4): 353 - get paper here
  • Heideman, N.J.L. et al. 2008. Sexual dimorphism in the African legless skink subfamily Acontiinae (Reptilia: Scincidae). African Zoology 43 (2): 192–201 - get paper here
  • HEINICKE, M. P. & A. M. BAUER. 2018. A NEW PROVINCIAL RECORD AND OTHER NOTEWORTHY RECORDS OF REPTILES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA. African Herp News (67): 37 - 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
  • Hewitt, J. 1937. Description of new forms of the genus Acontias. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Africa 26: 39-48
  • 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
  • MASHININI, L. 2010. Microacontias litoralis (Broadley & Greer, 1969) Maximum size. African Herp News (51): 15 - get paper here
  • MASHININI, P.L., HEIDEMAN, N.J.L., & MOUTON, P.L.N. 2011. On some ecological aspects of the coastal legless lizard Acontias litoralis (Scincidae: Acontinae). African Herp News (53): 16-21 - get paper here
  • Mashinini, Phomolo L., Neil J. L. Heideman and P. le Fras N. Mouton. 2008. Analysis of intraspecific colour variation in the fossorial Coastal Legless Lizard, Microacontias litoralis (Scincidae: Acontiinae). African Journal of Herpetology 57(2):115-122 - get paper here
  • Peters, Wilhem Carl Hartwig 1879. Über neue Amphibien des Kgl. Zoologischen Museums (Euprepes, Acontias, Typhlops, Zamenis, Spilotes, Oedipus). Monatsber. königl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin. 1879(August): 773-779 [1880] - get paper here
  • Pyron, R. Alexander; Frank T. Burbrink 2013. Early origin of viviparity and multiple reversions to oviparity in squamate reptiles. Ecology Letters 17 (1): 13–21 (published online 2013, in print 2014), DOI: 10.1111/ele.12168 - 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
  • Werner,F. 1910. Reptilia et Amphibia. In Schultze, L., Zoologische und anthropologische Ergebnisse einer Forschungsreise im westlichen und zentralen Südafrika. Band IV, Systematik und Tiergeographie Vertebrata B. Denkschr. Med.-Nat. Wiss. GeselI. Jena 16: 279-370 [1910] - get paper here
  • Whiting, A.S.; Aaron M. Bauer and Jack W. Sites, Jr. 2003. Phylogenetic relationships and limb loss in sub-Saharan African scincine lizards (Squamata: Scincidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29 (3): 582-598 - 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
 
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