Acontias breviceps

Acontias breviceps
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Lacertilia
Family: Scincidae
Genus: Acontias
Species: A. breviceps
Binomial name
Acontias breviceps
Essex, 1925
Synonyms
  • Acontias plumbeus breviceps Fitzsimons, 1943

Acontias breviceps Essex aka Shorthead lance skink is a viviparous, legless, fossorial lizard occurring along the southern and eastern sections of the Great Escarpment in South Africa. It may grow up to 10 cm long.

This skink was first collected in 1925 by Robert Essex at Hogsback in the Amatola Mountains in the Eastern Cape at an elevation of some 6000 ft. A disjunct second population exist in the Transvaal Drakensberg. Essex collected for the Albany Museum of Grahamstown, but a fire in 1941 destroyed most specimens and records. [2]

References

  1. Heideman, N (2009). "Acontias breviceps". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature.
  2. "A Biographical Dictionary of Contributors to the Natural History of the Free State and Lesotho" - Rodney Moffett

Bibliography


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