Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus HALLOWELL, 1857
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Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus
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| Higher Taxa | Gerrhosauridae (Gerrhosaurinae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | Black-lined Plated Lizard intermedius: Eastern Black-lined Plated Lizard |
| Synonym | Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus nigrolineatus HALLOWELL 1857 Gerrhosaurus nigro-lineatus HALLOWELL 1857: 49 Gerrhosaurus flavigularis forma intermedia LÖNNBERG 1907 Gerrhosaurus flavigularis nigrolineatus — SCHMIDT 1919: 523 Gerrhosaurus flavigularis nigrolineatus — LOVERIDGE 1936: 65 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus australis FITZSIMONS 1939 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus — FITZSIMONS 1943: 277 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus nigrolineatus — WERMUTH 1968 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus nigrolineatus — AUERBACH 1987: 119 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus ahlefeldti HELLMICH & SCHMELCHER 1956 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus ahlfeldtii [sic] — HALLERMANN 1998 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus — BONETTI 2002: 78 Gerrhosaurus intermedius — BATES et al. 2013 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus — BATES et al. 2013 Gerrhosaurus intermedius — BATES et al. 2014: 228 Gerrhosaurus cf. nigrolineatus — CONRADIE et al. 2016 Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus — SPAWLS et al 2018: 217 Gerrhosaurus cf. nigrolineatus — MARQUES et al. 2018 |
| Distribution | Gabon, W/S Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Angola, Namibia, Tanzania, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia nigrolineatus s.str.: West + Central Afria. intermedius: East and Southern Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa (BATES et al. 2013) Type locality: Gabon |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntypes: ANSP 3729, 8825 Paratype: ZFMK 48753-754, one male and one sub-adult specimen [ahlefeldti] Holotype: NRM 2730 [intermedius] |
| Diagnosis | Description: Head large, length from 4.3 to 5 times into length of head and body, and from 1.5-1.6 times as long as broad. Head- shields smooth. Supranasals forming a median suture. Frontonasal 6-sided, usually broader than long (exceptionally slightly longer than broad). Prefrontals usually in long median contact with one another (exceptionally in short contact). 4 Supraoculars and 4 supraciliaries. Dorsal scales not or but very feebly striated, smooth or weakly keeled on nape, strongly keeled on back (with keels forming more or less continuous ridges) and mucronate posteriorly, in 22-24 (usually 22) regular longitudinal and 54-58 (usually about 56) transverse series; lateral scales keeled (more weakly than above) and sometimes feebly striated. 15-20 (usually 16-18) Femoral pores on each side. Scales on sales of feet flattened, keeled, oblique and imbricate. Subdigital lamellae smooth, 14-16 (usually 16) under 4th toe. Fully adult specimens attain to a length of 165-175 mm for head and body, with temporal region distinctly swollen and general form heavier and more robust than flavigularis, which retains its slender form throughout life (FitzSimons 1943: 277). Colour: Adult, light brown to russet or snuff-brown above, uniform, or scales bearing elongate dark brown spots; a yellowish- white to yellow dorsolateral streak (dark-edged above and below) on each side. from last supraciliary over back and anterior third of tail; pale dorsolateral streaks usually 6-8 scale rows apart. Sides of body paler than above, with scattered spots of white, yellow, reddish-brown or dark brown. Below, creamy to yellowish-white. Head uniform or dark spotted. In juveniles the dark spots are squarish in shape and usually arranged to form irregular tl'ansverse bars; a median pale stripe sometimes present, usually broken up into a series of narrow elongate dark-edged spots (one to each crossbar); as the adult stage is reached the spots On back become fainter, until in old specimens they often disappear completely. Pale spots on sides of body usually form more or less reguiar vertical series (FitzSimons 1943: 278). |
| Comment | Synonymy: BRANCH 1998 synonymized Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus ahlefeldti HELLMICH & SCHMELCHER 1956 with the nominate form Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus nigrolineatus HALLOWELL 1857. BATES et al. 2013 conclude that G. f. intermedia Lönnberg, 1907 is conspecific with eastern populations currently referred to G. nigrolineatus Hallowell, 1857 and which they now refer to G. intermedius. Also, since BATES et al. do not provide a (revised) diagnosis of G. intermedius, we leave it in the synonymy of G. nigrolineatus for the time being. |
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