Acontias rieppeli (LAMB, BISWAS & BAUER, 2010)

Find more photos by Google images search:

Higher Taxa	Scincidae, Acontiinae (Acontidae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Wood-bush Legless Skink
Synonym	Acontophiops lineatus STERNFELD 1912 Typhlosaurus rieppeli — WELCH 1982: 67 (replacement name) Acontophiops lineatus — BRANCH 1988: 115 Acontophiops lineatus — BRANCH 1993: 65 Acontophiops lineatus — DANIELS et al. 2006 Acontias rieppeli — LAMB et al. 2010 (nom. nov.) Acontias rieppeli — ZHAO et al. 2023
Distribution	Republic of South Africa (N Transvaal, from Woodbush to Wolkberg) Type locality: Mpome, Transvaal
Reproduction	ovovivparous
Types	Syntypes: ZMB 3471 (3 specimens), presented Knothe.
Diagnosis
Comment	While the paper is listed the species name is not mentioned in the Zoological Record of 1911. Type species: Acontophiops lineatus STERNFELD 1911 is the type species of the genus Acontophiops STERNFELD 1911. Acontophiops can be distinguished from Acontias by possessing two supraciliaries and with the external ear openings hidden, while Acontias possesses three to four supraciliaries and no external ear openings (DANIELS et al. 2006). The genus Acontophiops has been synonymized with Acontias by LAMB et al. 2010. This would have resulted in Acontias lineatus which is pre-occupied by Acontias lineatus PETERS 1879. Limb morphology: Limbless.
Etymology	Named after Olivier C. Rieppel, zoologist at the Field Museum, “ for his recognition of the close affinities of Acontophiops lineatus and Typhlosaurus cregoi”.
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. Branch,W.R. 1988. Field Guide to the snakes and other reptiles of southern Africa. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, 328 pp. 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 FitzSimons, V.F. 1943. The lizards of South Africa. Transvaal Museum Memoir No.1 (Pretoria), 528 pp. Huey, R. B.; Pianka, E. R. 1974. Ecological character displacement in a lizard. American Zoologist 14: 1127-1136 - get paper here 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 Rieppel, O. 1982. The phylogenetic relationships of the genus Acontophiops Sternfeld (Sauria: Scincidae), with a note on mosaic evolution. Annals Transvaal Museum 33 (12): 241-257 - get paper here Sternfeld, R. 1912. Eine neue Scincidengattung aus Südafrika und eine neue Amphisbaenide aus Kamerun. Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin 1912: 248-250 - get paper here 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 Welch, K.R.G. 1982. Herpetology of the Old World 2. Preliminary comments on the classification of skinks (family Scincidae) with specific reference to those genera found in Africa, Europe and southwest Asia. Herptile 7 (4): 25 Witte, G.F. & R. LAURENT 1943. Contribution à la systématique des formes dégradées de la famille des Scincidae apparentées au genre Scelotes Fitzinger. Mém. Mus. r. Hist. nat. Belg. (sér.2) 26: 44 pp. Zhao, Z, Goedhals, J, Verdú‐Ricoy, J, Jordaan, A, Heideman, N. 2019. Comparative analysis of the eye anatomy in fossorial and surface‐living skink species (Reptilia: Scincidae), with special reference to the structure of the retina. Acta Zool. 2019; 00: 1– 13 - 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 http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/reptiles/squamata/scincidae… https://www.facebook.com/groups/stshc/posts/243450061212933/ Google images

Is it interesting? Share with others:

As link to this species use URL address:

https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Acontias&species=rieppeli

without field 'search_param'. Field 'search_param' is used for browsing search result.

Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator