Sepsina

Sepsina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia (paraphyletic)
Order: Squamata (paraphyletic)
(unranked): Sauria
Infraorder: Scincomorpha
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: see text
Genus: Sepsina
Bocage, 1866[1]
Species

5, see text.

Synonyms

Sepsina is a genus of skinks (family Scincidae). The genus is endemic to southern Africa.[3]

Taxonomy

This genus is presently placed in the subfamily Scincinae, a subfamily which seems to be paraphyletic however. Sepsina belongs to a major clade of this group which does not seem to include the type genus Scincus. Thus, it will probably be eventually assigned to a new, yet-to-be-named subfamily.[4]

Species

The following five species are recognized:[3]

Etymology

The specific name, bayoni, is in honor of Francisco Antonio Pinheiro Bayão, a Portuguese planter in Angola, who collected the holotype.

The specific name, copei, is in honor of American herpetologist and paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope.

Unfortunately, Hewitt did not explain to whom the specific name, alberti, refers. It may be in honor of Albert I of Belgium, or Belgian-British herpetologist George Albert Boulenger, or an altogether different unsung Albert.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Dahms Tierleben. www.dahmstierleben.de.
  2. Boulenger GA. 1887. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume III. Lacertidæ, Gerrhosauridæ, Scincidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 575 pp. + Plates I- XL. (Genus Sepsina, p. 417).
  3. 1 2 The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  4. Austin & Arnold 2006.
  5. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Sepsina alberti, p. 4; Sepsina bayoni, p. 20: Sepsina copei, p. 59).

Further reading


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