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Pseudocordylus melanotus (SMITH, 1838)

IUCN Red List - Pseudocordylus melanotus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaCordylidae (Cordylinae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
SubspeciesPseudocordylus melanotus melanotus (SMITH 1838)
Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis (SMITH 1838) 
Common NamesE: Common Crag Lizard, Highveld Crag Lizard
E: Drakensberg Crag Lizard
G: Drakensberg-Gürtelschweif [subviridis] 
SynonymCordylus (Pseudocordylus) melanotus SMITH 1838
Pseudocordylus microlepidotus melanotus LOVERIDGE 1944
Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus — DE WAAL 1978
Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus — VISSER 1984
Cordylus melanotus — FROST et al. 2001
Pseudocordylus melanotus — STANLEY et al. 2011
Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus — BATES et al. 2014: 202
Pseudocordylus melanotus — STANDER 2023: 115

Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis (SMITH 1838)
Cordylus (Pseudocordylus) sub-viridis SMITH 1838
Pseudocordylus subviridis — HEWITT 1927
Pseudocordylus microlepidotus subviridis — FITZSIMONS 1937
Pseudocordylus subviridis subviridis — FITZSIMONS 1943
Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis — VISSER 1984
Pseudocordylus subviridis — STANLEY et al. 2011
Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis — BATES et al. 2014: 202
Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis — RILEY et al. 2021 
DistributionRepublic of South Africa (Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga Provinces)).

Type locality: South Africa [= hills between the main branches of the Orange River east of Philippolis, Orange Free State, restricted to Ficksburg District by De Waal (1978)].

subviridis: Republic of South Africa (from Amatola Mountains to Transvaal Drakensberg, extending on to OFS highveld), Lesotho  
ReproductionOvoviviparous 
Types 
Diagnosis 
CommentSubspecies: Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis is considered as a valid species by some authors, but treated as a subspecies by others. See P. subviridis.

Sexual dimorphism: most adult males, unlike adult females, are brightly coloured, and they are larger in body size and have relatively larger heads than females. Three basic colour phases can be distinguished among the brightly coloured adult males. No apparent differences in reproductive activity, number and differentiation state of the generation glands and femoral pores, or scar frequency were noted among the three colour phases.

Subspecies: Stanley et al. (2011) found that P. m. melanotus and P. transvaalensis were closely related and form a sister clade of P. m. subviridis, hence they suggested to treat the latter as a full species. However, However, Bates in Bates et al. 2014 argued that Stanley’s only P. m. melanotus sample was from the same geographical area as P. m. melanotus-like populations that Bates (2007) considered representative of an undescribed species. Bates (2007) also found considerable diversity within P. m. subviridis.

NCBI taxonID: 884359 [subviridis]
RDB speciesID: 17924 [subviridis] 
EtymologyNamed after Greek melanos (μέλανος), black + Greek notos (νοτος), back, dorsum. 
References
  • BATES, M.F. 2007. An Analysis of the Pseudocordylus melanotus Complex (Sauria: Cordylidae). Ph.D. thesis, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch
  • BATES, M.F., & WHITTINGTON-JONES, C. 2009. Pseudocordylus m. melanotus (A. Smith, 1848). African Herp News (48): 23-25 - 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.
  • Boycott, R.C. 1992. An Annotated Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Swaziland. The Conservation Trust of Swaziland - get paper here
  • Branch, W. R. 1998. Field Guide to the Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa. 3rd ed. Fully Revised and Updated to Include 83 New Species. Ralph Curtis Books (Sanibel Island, Florida), 399 pp.
  • Broadley, D. G. 1964. A review of the crag lizards (Genus Pseudocordylus) of Natal. Annals of the Natal Museum 16: 99-110
  • Conradie, Werner; Brain Reeves, Sandile Mdoko, Lwandiso Pamla, Oyama Gxabhu 2020. Herpetological survey of the Ongeluksnek (Malekgalonyane) Nature Reserve on the foothills of the Drakensberg, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Herpetology Notes 13: 717-730 - get paper here
  • Cooper Jr., W.E. 2005. Duration of movement as a lizard foraging movement variable. Herpetologica 61 (4): 363-372 - get paper here
  • Cozien, R. J., T. van der Niet, S. D. Johnson, and S.-L. Steenhuisen. 2019. Saurian surprise: lizards pollinate South Africa’s enigmatic hidden flower. Ecology 00(00):e02670. 10.1002/ecy.2670 - get paper here
  • FitzSimons, V.F. 1943. The lizards of South Africa. Transvaal Museum Memoir No.1 (Pretoria), 528 pp.
  • Fitzsimons, Vivian Frederick Maynard 1937. Notes on the reptiles and amphibians collected and described from South Africa by Andrew Smith. Annals Transvaal Museum 17: 259-274. - get paper here
  • Flemming, A.F. 1992. The Reproductive Cycle of the Viviparous Lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus melanotus in the Orange Free State. J. Herp. Assoc. Africa (40): 67-69 - get paper here
  • Hewitt, J. 1927. Further descriptions of reptiles and batrachians from South Africa. Rec. Albany Mus. (Grahamstown) 3 (5): 371-415
  • Langerwerf, B. 1996. Notes on the Natural History, Husbandry, and Breeding of Drakensberg Crag Lizards (Pseudocordylus melanotus subviridis). In: Strimple, P. D. (Hrsg): Advances in Herpetoculture. Spec. Publ. Intern. Herp. Symp., No. 1: 75-79
  • Langerwerf, B. 2005. Haltung und Nachzucht des Drakensberg-Gürtelschweifes (Cordylus melanotus subviridis). Reptilia (Münster) 10 (51): 66-69 - get paper here
  • McConnachie, Suzanne 2014. The effects of temperature on oxygen consumption in the lizard Pseudocordylus melanotus from Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. African Journal of Herpetology 63: 57-69 - get paper here
  • McConnachie, Suzanne; Graham J. Alexander, & Martin J. Whiting 2010. SELECTED BODY TEMPERATURE AND THERMOREGULATORY BEHAVIOR IN THE SIT-AND-WAIT FORAGING LIZARD PSEUDOCORDYLUS MELANOTUS MELANOTUS. Herpetological Monographs 23 (1): 108-122 [2009] - get paper here
  • Mouton, P. le Fras N. & Wyk, Johannes H. van 1993. Sexual dimorphism in cordylid lizards: a case study of the Drakensberg crag lizard, Pseudocordylus melanotus. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 71 (9): 1715-1723. - get paper here
  • Mouton, P. le Fras N. & Wyk, Johannes H. van 1993. Reptile fauna of the Katse Dam catchment area and a biogeographical assessment of species composition in the Lesotho Highlands. Koedoe (Pretoria), 36 (1): 67-78. - get paper here
  • MOUTON, P. LE FRAS N.; DAHNÉ A. JANSE VAN RENSBURG and JOHANNES H. VAN WYK 2010. Epidermal glands in cordylid lizards, with special reference to generation glands. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158: 312–324. - get paper here
  • Reissig, J. 2014. Girdled Lizards and Their Relatives. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, ISBN-10: 3899734378
  • Riley, J. L., Baxter‐Gilbert, J. H., & Whiting, M. J. 2021. Social and spatial patterns of two Afromontane crag lizards (Pseudocordylus spp.) in the Maloti‐Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa. Austral Ecology - get paper here
  • Smith, A. 1838. Contributions to South African zoology. Art. VI. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) 2: 30-33 - 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
  • Stanley, Edward L.; Aaron M. Bauer; Todd R. Jackman, William R. Branch, P. Le Fras N. Mouton 2011. Between a rock and a hard polytomy: rapid radiation in the rupicolous girdled lizard (Squamata: Cordylidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 58(1): 53-70. - 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
  • VISSER, J. 1984. Tierboskat-geitjes kies klipperige woonplek. Akkedisse van Suider-Afrika 7. Landbouweek- blad, 27 April 1984:48–49, 51, 53
  • Waal, S. W. P. de 1978. The Squamata (Reptilia) of the Orange Free State, South Africa. Memoirs van die Nasionale Museum (Bloemfontein), 11: iii + 160 pp.
 
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