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Mesalina balfouri (BLANFORD, 1881)

IUCN Red List - Mesalina balfouri - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaLacertidae, Eremiadinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymEremias (Mesalina) balfouri BLANFORD 1881: 467
Eremias guttulata balfouri — NEUMANN 1905
Mesalina olivieri balfouri — HAAS 1951
Mesalina balfouri — ARNOLD 1986
Mesalina olivieri balfouri — SZCZERBAK 1989
Mesalina balfouri — RÖSLER & WRANIK 2000
Mesalina balfouri — RAZZETTI et al. 2011 
DistributionYemen (Socotra Island, Darsa Island, Samha, Abd al-Kuri)

Type locality: Socotra  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 81.7.22.8-11 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: The number of scales across midbody is 36 to 42; intermediate between those of typical form and Mesalina olivieri. Size is slightly larger than the typical form or any other species. Head is 1.5 times as long as broad. Nasals not very strongly swollen. The hindlimb reaches the collar or between the collar and the ear in males; the elbow, the axil, or the shoulder in females. Frontonasal as long as broad or a little broader than long; frontal shorter than its distance from the end of snout and nearly always in contact with first supraocular; interpari- etal longer than frontoparietals; occipital small to very small. Collar free and composed of 7 to 9 plates. Ventral plates in 26 to 28 transverse rows in males, 28 to 31 in fe- males. Preanal plate large in males, smaller in females, bordered by two semicircles of small plates. Femoral pores11 to 15 on each side. Gray or brown above, usually with two white streaks on each side. A series more or less confluent black spots, or black and white ocelli along each side of back on the inner side of the light streak; these markings, as well as the light streaks, sometimes obsolete (Blanford, 1881; Bütikofer, 2012, Yousefkhani et al. 2015). 
CommentSynonymy: Boulenger (1887) synonymised this species with Mesalina guttulata. 
EtymologyNamed after Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853-1922), Professor of Botany and Regius Keeper of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden (1890-1922). 
References
  • Arnold E N 1986. The hemipenes of lacertid lizards (Reptilia: Lacertidae): structure, variation, and systematic implications. Journal of Natural History 20: 1221-1257 - get paper here
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Blanford, W. T. 1881. Notes on the lizards collected in Socotra by Professor l. Bayley Balfour. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1881: 464-469. - get paper here
  • BÜTIKOFER, L. & SACCHI, R. & PUPIN, F. & PELLITTERI-ROSA, D. & RAZZETTI, E. & PELLA, F. & FASOLA, M. 2012. Sexual dimorphism and allometry of the lacertid Mesalina balfouri (BLANFORD, 1881), endemic to the Archipelago of Socotra (Yemen). Herpetozoa 25 (3/4): 101-108 - get paper here
  • Haas, G. 1951. Remarks on the status of Eremias olivieri Audouin. Copeia 1950 (1): 52-53 - get paper here
  • Hosseinian-Yousefkhani, Seyyed Saeed; Gabriel M.D. Marmol Marin, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani 2015. A Bibliographic Recompilation of the Genus Mesalina Gray, 1838 (Sauria: Lacertidae) with a Key to the Species. Russ. J. Herpetol. 22 (1): 23-34 - get paper here
  • Joger, U. & Mayer, W. 2002. A new species of Mesalina (Reptilia: Lacertidae) from Abd al-Kuri, Socotra Archipelago, Yemen, and a preliminary molecular phylogeny for the genus Mesalina. Fauna of Arabia 19: 497-505
  • Kapli, P., Lymberakis, P., Crochet, P.-A., Geniez, P., Brito, J. C., Almutairi, M., Ahmadzadeh, F., Schmitz, A., Wilms, T., Pouyani, N. R., Poulakakis, N. 2014. Historical biogeography of the lacertid lizard Mesalina in North Africa and the Middle East. Journal of Biogeography, doi: 10.1111/jbi.12420 - get paper here
  • Neumann, Oscar Rudolph 1905. Über nordost-afrikanische und arabische Kriechtiere. Zool. Jahrb. Syst., 22: 389-404. - get paper here
  • Razzetti, Edoardo; ROBERTO SINDACO, CRISTINA GRIECO, FRANCESCA PELLA, UGO ZILIANI, FABIO PUPIN, ELISA RISERVATO, DANIELE PELLITTERI-ROSA, LUCA BUTIKOFER, AHMED SAEED SULEIMAN, BADAR AWADH AL-ASEILY, CATERINA CARUGATI, ELEONORA BONCOMPAGNI & MAURO FAS 2011. Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia). Zootaxa 2826: 1–44 - get paper here
  • Rösler, H. & Wranik, W. 2004. A key and annotated checklist to the reptiles of the Socotra archipelago. Fauna of Arabia 20: 505-534
  • Rösler,H. & Wranik,W. 2000. Beiträge zur Herpetologie der Republik Jemen 6. Erste Übersicht ur Herpetofauna der Insel Darsa (Sokotra-Archipel) (Reptilia: Sauria et Serpentes). Faunist. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkunde, Dresden 22 (7)
  • Simó-Riudalbas, M., Tamar, K., Šmíd, J., Mitsi, P., Sindaco, R., Chirio, L., & Carranza, S. 2019. Biogeography of Mesalina (Reptilia: Lacertidae), with special emphasis on the Mesalina adramitana group from Arabia and the Socotra Archipelago. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution - get paper here
  • Steindachner, Franz 1903. Batrachier und Reptilien von Südarabien und Sokotra, gesammelt während der südarabischen Expedition der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sitzungsb. Akad. Wiss. Wien, math.-naturwiss. Kl., 112, Abt. 1: 7-14 - get paper here
  • Szczerbak, Nikolai N. 1989. Catalogue of the African Sand lizards (Reptilia: Sauria: Eremiainae: Lampreremias, Pseuderemias, Taenieremias, Mesalina, Meroles). Herpetozoa 1 (3/4): 119-132. - get paper here
 
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