Latastia longicaudata (REUSS, 1834)
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Latastia longicaudata
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| Higher Taxa | Lacertidae, Eremiadinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | Latastia longicaudata andersonii BOULENGER 1921 Latastia longicaudata lanzai ARILLO, BALLETTO & SPANO 1967 Latastia longicaudata longicaudata (REUSS 1834) Latastia longicaudata revoili (VAILLANT 1882) |
| Common Names | E: Southern long-tailed lizard, Common Long-tailed Lizard, Reuss's Long-tailed Lacertid G: Gewöhnlichen Langschwanzeidechse |
| Synonym | Lacerta longicaudata REUSS 1834: 29 Lacerta samharica BLANFORD 1870: 449 Lacerta sturti BLANFORD 1870: 452 Latastia samharica —BEDRIAGA 1884: 13 Latastia longicaudata — MOCQUARD 1888: 117 Latastia longicaudata — BOULENGER 1895: 168 Latastia longicaudata — BOULENGER 1896: 551 Latastia longicaudata — TORNIER 1905: 373 Latastia longicaudata — BOULENGER 1921: 25 Latastia longicaudata — CALABRESI 1923: 157 Latastia longicaudata — ARILLO et al. 1967: 114 Latastia longicaudata longicaudata — PAPENFUSS 1969 Latastia longicaudata — DREWES 1972 Latastia longicaudata — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 18 Latastia longicaudata — LARGEN & SPAWLS 2010: 356 Latastia longicaudata — SPAWLS et al 2018: 196 Latastia longicaudata andersonii BOULENGER 1921 Latastia longicaudata var. andersonii BOULENGER 1921: 30 Latastia longicaudata andersonii — SCHÄTTI & GASPERETTI 1994 Latastia longicaudata andersonii — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008 Latastia longicaudata lanzai ARILLO, BALLETTO & SPANO 1967 Latastia longicaudata lanzai ARILLO, BALLETTO & SPANO 1967: 128 Latastia lanzai — LANZA 1983 Latastia longicauda lanzai — LANZA 1988 Latastia longicauda lanzai — SPAWLS & ROTICH 1997 Latastia longicauda lanzai — KRONIGER & ZAWADZKI 2005 Latastia longicaudata revoili (VAILLANT 1882) Eremias revoili VAILLANT 1882: 20 Latastia longicaudata var. revoili — BOULENGER 1921 Latastia longicaudata revoili — SCORTECCI 1929: 321 Latastia longicaudata revoili — PARKER 1932: 214 Latastia longicaudata revoili — MERTENS 1938 Latastia longicaudata revoili — WITTE & LAURENT 1942: 172 Latastia longicaudata revoili — ARILLO, BALLETTO & SPANO 1967: 121 Latastia longicaudata revoili — LANZA 1988 |
| Distribution | Senegal, Mali, up to Sudan (Jumhūriyyat), Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Egypt (including Sinai Peninsula), and up to Ethiopia and N Somalia, Yemen, S Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, N Tanzania, Cameroon (Böhme 1975), Central African Republic, Niger, Djibouti, Mauritania, Nigeria Type locality: “Gegend von Tor im peträischen Arabien” andersonii: SW Arabia lanzai: Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia; Type locality: “Missioni Biologica in Somalia .. a Dinsor” revoili: Ethiopia, Kenya, south to ugogo, C Tanzania. Type locality: "Darror valley", Somalia |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: SMF 13601 Holotype: MZUF (Museo Zoologico dell’Università di Firenze) 1705; paratype: MSNM [lanzai] Syntypes: BMNH (4), Sheik Othman, El Kudar [andersonii] Lectotype: MNHN-RA 5898; paratypes: MNHN-RA 5854 and MNHN-RA 5898A [revoili] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Head-shields normal. Nostril pierced between three to five shields and bordered by the first upper labial or narrowly separated from it. Lower eyelid scaly, a transparent disc, if present, formed of several scales. Collar well marked. Dorsal scales small and juxtaposed or rather large, imbricate, and graduating into the caudals; ventral plates not or but feebly imbricate, with truncate or straight posterior border, smooth. Digits feebly compressed, with keeled lamellar scales inferiorly. Femoral pores. Tail long, cylindrical. South-western Asia, North-eastern and Tropical Africa. All the species have retained the parietal foramen, and the pterygoid teeth are absent or reduced to a few. There are two superposed postnasals, or even three in some specimens of L. cappadocica. This genus forms a connexion between Lacerta and Acanthodactylus and falls into two principal groups, or sections, which appear to have been derived independently from two sections of the genus Lacerta, as mentioned in dealing with L. cappadocica, the unique representative of Apathya, regarded as generically distinct by Méhely. Méhely has attached a great importance to the number of keels under the digits in separating Apathya from Latastia, but the distinctive character would not hold good in the genera Acanthodactylus and Ophiops, where I find a great variation in the keels in specimens of A. vulgaris and O. microlepis, some having a single median keel on the subdigital lamella, others two or three. The keels also vary according to the species in the genus Eremias in the sense in which it is usually taken. (Boulenger 1921: 14) 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 | Distribution: Lanza (1990) suggested that Kenyan specimens of this species belong to L. longicaudata lanzai. Type species: Lacerta samharica BLANFORD 1870 is the type species of the genus Latastia BEDRIAGA 1884. Reference images: see Uetz et al. 2024 for high-resolution reference images for this species. |
| Etymology | Named after long tail, from Latin cauda = tail. L. l. andersonii was apparently named after John Anderson (1833 –1900), Scottish zoologist. “J. Anderson” was cited multiple times in Boulenger’s monograph as collector of specimens, but not specifically with the description of this taxon. L. l. lanzai was named after Benedetto Lanza, Italian herpetologist. L. l. revoili was named after a certain M. Révoil, who reported (presented?) the specimens to Vaillant. The genus was named after Lataste + Latin -ia, dedicative suffix. Honoring Fernand Lataste (1847-1934), French naturalist. |
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