Ablepharus bivittatus (MENETRIES, 1832)
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Ablepharus bivittatus
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| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Eugongylinae, Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Twin-striped Skink, Two-Streaked Snake-Eyed Skink G: Gestreiftes Natternauge |
| Synonym | Scincus bivittatus MENETRIES 1832: 64 Ablepharus Menestriesii — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1839: 811 Ablepharus bivittatus — STRAUCH 1868 Ablepharus bivittatus — GREER 1974: 9 Ablepharus bivittatus bivittatus — BISCHOFF 1978 Ablepharus bivittatus — ENGELMANN et al 1993 Ablepharus bivittatus — SZCZERBAK 2003 Ablepharus bivittatus — ŠMÍD et al. 2014 Asymblepharus bivittatus — BOZKURT et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | E Turkey [Chernov 1949], NW/N Iran (and USSR), Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Armenia Type locality: “Perimbal sur les montagnes de Talyche” [= Talish Mountains, SE Azerbaijan] elevation: between 2,300 and 3300 m. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: ZISP 565, designated by Eremchenko and Szczerbak, 1986:71), originally as syntypes ZISP (ZIL) 563-565. Holotype: IBSP 5395 (Instituto Butantan, São Paulo) [triseriatus] Holotype: MLS (Bogotá, Colombia) [striatus] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: “(22)-24 Schuppenlängsreihen um die Mitte des Körpers; 3 Schläfenschilder in der erste Reihe hinter dem Auge. Präfrontalia stoßen in der Mitte (in der Regel) mit Naht zusammen. An den Körperseiten je ein heller Streifen von Schuppenbreite in der Fortsetzung der Oberlippenschilder.” (Wettstein 1960: 62, based on a translation from Russian to German, originally in Terentjev & Cernov). |
| Comment | Subspecies: Ablepharus bivittatus lindbergi WETTSTEIN 1960 is now considered as a valid species. Distribution: see maps in SMID et al. 2014, Bozkurt et al. 2020: 135 (Fig. 1). Generic allocation. A. bivittatus shares diagnostic characteristics with Asymblepharus, except the transversal series of dorsal scales at the midtrunk 22–24. Hence, A. bivittatus must be classified as Asymblepharus bivittatus comb. nov. based on the morphological and molecular analysis (Bozkurt et al. 2020). Note, however, that Bozkurt et al. did not include any samples from Asymblepharus in their phylogenetic analysis, hence their conclusion seems a bit preliminary. |
| Etymology | Named after “bi-” = two or dual and Latin “vitta, -ae” = band or stripe. |
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