Acontias breviceps ESSEX, 1925

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Higher Taxa	Scincidae, Acontiinae (Acontidae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Shortheaded Legless Skink, Shorthead Lance Skink
Synonym	Acontias breviceps ESSEX 1925: 332 Acontias breviceps — HEWITT 1937: 41 Acontias plumbeus breviceps — FITZSIMONS 1943: 249 Acontias breviceps — DANIELS et al. 2006 Acontias breviceps — LAMB et al. 2010 Acontias breviceps — CONRADIE et al. 2019 Acontias breviceps — ZHAO et al. 2023
Distribution	Republic of South Africa (E Cape, E Transvaal) Type locality: Hogsback, Amatola Mts., 6000 ft elevation.
Reproduction	ovovivparous
Types	Lectotype: PEM R5570 (AMG un-numbered); ; R. Essex, September 1924. Paralectotypes (2): PEM R5101 & R5102; same collection details as lectotype. Previously syntypes: AMG = Albany Museum, fide FITZSIMONS 1943: 250; (3 specimens), fide Broadley & Greer, 1969.
Diagnosis
Comment	Erroneous spelling of A. brevipes? (see GREER 2001). Limb morphology: Limbless.
Etymology	Named after Latin “brevis, -e” = short and “-ceps”, a short form of “caput” = head.
References	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. Branch, William R. 1993. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Struik Publishers, 144 S. Busschau, Theo; Werner Conradie; Adriaan Jordaan, Savel R. Daniels 2016. Unmasking evolutionary diversity among two closely related South African legless skink species (Acontinae: Acontias) using molecular data. Zoology 121:72-82 [print 2017] - get paper here 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, 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 Essex, R. 1925. Descriptions of two new species of the genus Acontias and notes on some other lizards found in the Cape Province. Rec. Albany Mus. 3: 332-342. Greer, Allen E. 2001. Distribution of maximum snout-vent length among species of Scincid lizards. Journal of Herpetology 35 (3): 383-395 - 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 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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