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Scolecoseps boulengeri LOVERIDGE, 1920

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Higher TaxaScincidae, Scincinae, Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Boulenger's Limbless Skink 
SynonymScolecoseps boulengeri LOVERIDGE 1920: 159
Scolecoseps boulengeri — BROADLEY 1995 
DistributionMozambique

Type locality: Lumbo, north Mozambique coast.  
Reproduction 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 1946.8.2.91-92 (formerly 1920.5.4.42-43), Lambo, Portuguese East Africa, presented A. Loveridge. Described from six specimens, but only the two BMNH specimens are listed in the description as types. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): Skull characters: Palatines widely separated; palatal rami of pterygoids expanded slightly toward midline and deeply emarginated posteriorly, somewhat as in Melanoseps; pterygoid teeth absent. Postorbital bone absent; supratemporal arch weak and fenestra obliterated by apposition of bones in arch with parietal bone; twelve maxillary teeth. External characters: External naris in a large rostral and connected with the posterior edge of the rostral through a horizontal suture somewhat as in Typhlaeontias (Scincinae) or the subfamily Acontinae. Interparietal large, touching supraoculars; a pair of supranasals meeting behind rostral; no external ear opening; limbless [from GREER 1970]. 
CommentType species: Scolecoseps boulengeri LOVERIDGE 1920 is the type species of the genus Scolecoseps LOVERIDGE 1920.

Abundance: Rare. This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024. 
EtymologyNamed after George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937), herpetologist at the British Museum of Natural History, London. 
References
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Broadley, D.G. 1995. A new species of Scolecoseps (Reptilia: Scincidae) from southeastern Tanzania [S. litipoensis]. Amphibia-Reptilia 16: 241-244 - get paper here
  • Greer, Allen E. 1970. The systematics and evolution of the Subsaharan Africa, Seychelles, and Mauritius Scincine Scincid lizards. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 140 (1): 1-24 - get paper here
  • Laurent, R.F. 1964. Reptiles et batraciens de l'Angola (troisième contribution). Companhia de Di amantes de Angola (Diamang), Serviços Culturais, Museu do Dundo (Angola), No. 67, 165 pp.
  • Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here
  • Loveridge, A. 1920. Notes on East African lizards collected 1915-1919, with description of a new genus and species of skink and new subspecies of gecko. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1920: 131-167 - get paper here
  • Verburgt, Luke; Ursula K. Verburgt & William R. Branch 2018. A new species of Scolecoseps (Reptilia: Scincidae) from coastal north-eastern Mozambique. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (1): 86-98 - get paper here
 
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