Heremites afghanicus JABLONSKI, HOFMANN, IDREES, KHAN, JAMAL, BÖHME & MASROOR, 2026
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Heremites afghanicus
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| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Mabuyinae (Mabuyini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Afghan grass skink Pashto name: د افغانستان واښه څرمښکۍۍ یا دیر واښه څرمښکۍۍ |
| Synonym | Heremites afghanicus JABLONSKI, HOFMANN, IDREES, KHAN, JAMAL, BÖHME & MASROOR 2026: 122 |
| Distribution | Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Type locality: Shah Alam Baba, Tehsil Adinzai, Lower Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan (34.7367°N, 72.1021°E; 1,110 m a.s.l.; WGS 84), |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. PMNH 3518 (adult female), collected 22 August 2014 by Muhammad Idrees (Fig. 4A–F). Paratypes. • PMNH 3475 (adult male), Shah Alam Baba, Tehsil Adinzai, Lower Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan (34.7367°N, 72.1021°E; 1,110 m a.s.l.; WGS 84), collected 14 June 2013 by Muhammad Idrees; • PMNH 3519 (adult male), PMNH 3522 (adult male), and PMNH 3523 (adult male), same locality, collected 22 August 2014 by Muhammad Idrees; • NHMW-Zoo-HS-42309-1 (adult male), molecularly sampled and sequenced (genes and GenBank accession numbers – 12S: PZ348441; 16S: PZ348454; cytb: PZ334424; ND2: PZ338262; MC1R: PZ661696; RAG1: PZ661709), same locality, collected 18 September 2019 by Muhammad Idrees, R. Masroor, and D. Jablonski. • ZFMK 9064 (adult male; erroneously listed as female in the original catalogue of ZFMK), Dar-e-Nur, vic. Shewa, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan (34.5558°N, 70.6073°E; 1,200 m a.s.l.), collected on 7 April 1972 by Clas M. Naumann. Additional material. • PMNH 3474 (adult female), PMNH 3476 (adult male), PMNH 3477 (adult female), PMNH 3478 (adult female), PMNH 3520 (adult female), PMNH 3521 (adult male), PMNH 3524 (subadult female). All from Shah Alam Baba, Tehsil Adinzai, Lower Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Heremites afghanicus sp. nov. (southern foothills of the Hindu Kush; currently known from NW Pakistan and E Afghanistan) can be distinguished from the western Palearctic congeners compared here (H. auratus, H. septemtaeniatus complex, H. vittatus complex) by a unique combination of molecular divergence and external morphology. It represents a deeply divergent lineage in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, differing from the compared western congeners by uncorrected p-distances of 15.2–15.8% in cytb (505 bp) and 17.0–21.0% in ND2 (943 bp), while showing lower but still remarkable and consistent divergence in the nuclear markers (MC1R = 1.17–2.59%; RAG1 = 2.5–3.3%). Morphologically, it is diagnosable by the following combination of characters (type series and additional material, n = 14, Table 1; unless stated otherwise): (1) parietal shields in contact (PSC present in 14/14); (2) contact between the third supraocular and the frontal (SOF present in 14/14); (3) prefrontals usually in contact (PFC present in 10/14); (4) supralabials six or seven (mode 7), infralabials 6–8 (mode 7); (5) 34–38 scales around midbody (SAB), 52–60 dorsal scales from the first nuchal to the level above the vent (DSNV), and 60–69 ventral scales in a longitudinal series from chin shields to cloaca (VT); (6) subcaudals 78–98 (SC); (7) ear opening with 3–5 projecting scales (ear pectination, EP; mode 4); (8) dorsal scales consistently with three keels (KDS = 3); (9) comparatively short eye–nostril distance (END 2.7–5.1 mm), especially relative to H. auratus and the H. septemtaeniatus complex. Furthermore, H. afghanicus sp. nov. differs from the specimens assigned to the H. septemtaeniatus complex in exhibiting higher HL/HW ratios. In multivariate space based on combined metric, meristic, and categorical characters, individuals of H. afghanicus sp. nov. form a discrete cluster relative to H. auratus and the H. septemtaeniatus complex (MFA: Dim1 = 48.3%, Dim2 = 24.9% of total variance; PCA on metric data: PC1 = 39.1%, PC2 = 17.6%). (Jablonski et al. 2026) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data. However, these details, e.g. detailed descriptions (about between half a page and a page) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us if you need any of this material. |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | Named after the type locality in Afghanistan. |
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