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Zygaspis arenicola BROADLEY & BROADLEY, 1997

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Higher TaxaAmphisbaenidae, Amphisbaenia, Lacertoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesSand-dwelling Dwarf Worm Lizard 
SynonymZygaspis vandami arenicola BROADLEY & BROADLEY 1997
Amphisbaena violacea PETERS 1854: 620 (part.)
Zygaspis violacea — WEVER & GANS 1973: 190 (part.)
Zygaspis arenicola — GANS 2005: 38
Zygaspis vandami arenicola — BATES & MAGUIRE 2009
Zygaspis arenicola — BATES 2018
Zygaspis arenicola — JORDAAN et al. 2023 
DistributionMozambique plain south of the Save River, SE Zimbabwe, N KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Type locality: Maputo, Mozambique.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: DNMNH (= TM) 2921, paratype: PEM R10382 (formerly TMP 3001 and re-catalogued as AMG 2626) [arenicola] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (arenicola). An eastern race of Z. vandami with variable fusion of head shields in the temporal area, in particular there is usually a single large temporal, but some specimens retain a single postsupralabial.


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CommentSynonymy: Has been treated as synonym of Zygaspis violacea (e.g. LOVERIDGE 1941). Sympatric with Z. quadrifrons in the N Krüger National Park.

Habitat: Z. v. arenicola is found in alluvial sands on the Mozambique Plain, extending into north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, north-eastern Swaziland, and inland to the Cretaceous sands of south-eastern Zimbabwe (Jacobsen 1989, as Z. violacea; Broadley & Broadley 1997; Litschka, Koen & Monadjem 2008). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin arenicola, an inhabitant of sand. 
References
  • BATES, M.F., & MAGUIRE, D. 2009. Zygaspis vandami arenicola Broadley & Broadley, 1997. African Herp News (47): 43-44 - 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.
  • Bates, Michael F. 2018. Catalogue of reptiles from Mozambique in the collection of the National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Indago 34 (2): 135–147
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Broadley, Donald G. & Broadley, Sheila 1997. A revision of the African genus Zygaspis Cope (Reptilia: Amphisbaenia). Syntarsus 4: 1-24
  • 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
  • FitzSimons, V. F. 1930. Descriptions of new South African Reptilia and Batrachia, with distribution records of allied species in the Transvaal Museum collection. Annals Transvaal Mus. 14: 20-48. - get paper here
  • FitzSimons, V.F. 1943. The lizards of South Africa. Transvaal Museum Memoir No.1 (Pretoria), 528 pp.
  • Gans, C. 2005. CHECKLIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE AMPHISBAENIA OF THE WORLD. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 289: 1-130 - get paper here
  • JORDAAN, P. R., MEASEY, J., & COMBRINK, X. 2023. A Composite METHOD TO QUANTITATIVELY SURVEY FOSSORIAL HERPETOFAUNAL COMMUNITIES IN SANDY SUBSTRATE. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 18(3), 540-550 - get paper here
  • Loveridge, A. 1951. On reptiles and amphibians from Tanganyika Territory collected by C.J.P. Ionides. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 106 (4): 175- 204. - get paper here
  • Loveridge, ARTHUR 1941. Revision of the African lizards of the family Amphisbaenidae. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 87: 353-451. - get paper here
  • Measey, John & Krystal A. Tolley 2013. A molecular phylogeny for sub-Saharan amphisbaenians. African Journal of Herpetology 62 (2): 100-108 - 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
  • Welch, K.R.G. 1982. Herpetology of Africa; a checklist and bibliography of the orders Amphisbaenia, Sauria, and Serpentes. Robert E. Krieger Pub. Co., Malabar, FL 293 pp.
 
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