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Acontias occidentalis FITZSIMONS, 1941

IUCN Red List - Acontias occidentalis - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaScincidae, Acontiinae (Acontidae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Western Burrowing Skink, Savanna Legless Skink 
SynonymAcontias plumbeus occidentalis FITZSIMONS 1941: 275
Acontias plumbeus broadleyi FITZSIMONS 1956: 95
Acontias plumbeus broadleyi — BROADLEY 1962: 806
Acontias plumbeus occidentalis — BROADLEY 1962: 806
Acontias percivali occidentalis — BROADLEY & GREER 1969: 20
Acontias percivali occidentalis — HEIDEMAN et al. 2008
Acontias occidentalis — LAMB et al. 2010
Acontias occidentalis — WAGNER et al. 2012
Acontias occidentalis — CONRADIE et al. 2019
Acontias occidentalis — STANDER 2023: 200 
DistributionRepublic of South Africa (Limpopo Province), Zimbabwe, Namibia, S Angola

Type Locality: Okahandja (Namibia), designated by Mertens (1955)  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesLectotype: PEM R5105 (formerly AMG 6064); K. Bradfield, 23 April 1929. Paralectotypes (2): PEM R5113–5114 (formerly AMG 5978); 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 1522 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentLimb morphology: Limbless.

Synonymy: partly after  BROADLEY & GREER 1969. 
EtymologyThe specific name occidentalis (Latin) refers to the western distribution of this species. 
References
  • Auerbach, R.D. 1987. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Mokwepa Consultants, Botswana, 295 pp.
  • Baptista NL, António T, Branch WR. 2019. The herpetofauna of Bicuar National Park and surroundings, southwestern Angola: a preliminary checklist. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 13(2) [Special Section]: 96–130 (e203) - get paper here
  • 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, W. R. 1991. Life History Note: Acontias percivali tasmani: Size and Predation. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (39): 23-23 - get paper here
  • Broadley, D. G. & HOWELL, K. M. 1991. A check list of the reptiles of Tanzania, with synoptic keys. Syntarsus 1: 1—70
  • Broadley, D. G. and Greer, A. E. 1969. A revision of the genus Acontias Cuvier (Sauria: Scincidae). Arnoldia Rhodesia 4 (26): 1-29.
  • Broadley, D.G. 1962. On some reptile collections from the North-Western and North-Eastern Districts of Southern Rhodesia 1958-1961, with descriptions of four new lizards. Occ. Pap. Nat. Mus. South. Rhodesia 26 (B): 787-843
  • 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, S.R.; Neil J.L. Heideman, Martin G.J. Hendricks, Mphalile E. Mokone, Keith A. Crandall 2005. Unraveling evolutionary lineages in the limbless fossorial skink genus Acontias (Sauria: Scincidae): are subspecies equivalent systematic units? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 645–654 - get paper here
  • Heideman, N.J.L. et al. 2008. Sexual dimorphism in the African legless skink subfamily Acontiinae (Reptilia: Scincidae). African Zoology 43 (2): 192–201 - get paper here
  • Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - 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
  • Loveridge, A. 1935. Scientific results of an expedition to rain forest regions in Eastern Africa. I. New reptiles and amphibians from East Africa. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 79: 1- 19. - get paper here
  • Marques, Mariana P.; Luis M. P. Ceríaco , David C. Blackburn , and Aaron M. Bauer 2018. Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola -- Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840–2017). Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (Ser. 4) 65: 1-501 (Supplement II)
  • Mertens,R. 1955. Die Amphibien und Reptilien Südwestafrikas. Aus den Ergebnissen einer im Jahre 1952 ausgeführten Reise. Abh. senckenb. naturf. Ges. (Frankfurt) 490: 1-172 - get paper here
  • Spawls, S. & Rotich, D. 1997. An annotated checklist of the lizards of Kenya. J. East African Nat. Hist. 86: 61-83
  • Spawls, S.; Howell, K.; Drewes, R.C. & Ashe, J. 2002. A field guide to the reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, 543 pp. [reviews in HR 34: 396 and Afr. J. Herp. 51; 147] - get paper here
  • Stander, R.I. 2023. The Reptiles of the Limpopo Province and Kruger National Park. Herp Nomad, Polokwane, South Africa, 367 pp. - get paper here
  • Telford, N. S., ALEXANDER, G. J., BECKER, F. S., CONRADIE, W., JORDAAN, A., KEMP, L., ... & TOLLEY, K. A. 2022. EXTENSIONS TO THE KNOWN GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIONS OF REPTILES IN THE GREAT KAROO, SOUTH AFRICA. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 17(1), 145-154 - get paper here
  • Tolley, K.A., Conradie, W., Pietersen, D.W., Weeber, J., Burger, M. & Alexander, G.J. (eds) 2023. Conservation status of the reptiles of South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Suricata 10. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria
  • Wagner, Philipp; Donald G. Broadley, and Aaron M. Bauer 2012. A New Acontine Skink from Zambia (Scincidae: Acontias Cuvier, 1817). Journal of Herpetology 46 (4): 494-502. - get paper here
  • Zhao Z, Thibedi L, Mokone M, Heideman N 2025. A morphometric exploration of the taxonomic utility of scale osteoderms in southern African fossorial skinks (Acontinae, Acontias). Zoosystematics and Evolution 101(3): 1163-1175 - get paper here
 
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