Trachylepis striata

African striped skink
T. s. striata in Kruger NP, South Africa
T. s. wahlbergi at Lusaka, Zambia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Lygosominae
Genus: Trachylepis
Species: T. striata
Binomial name
Trachylepis striata
(Peters, 1844)
Synonyms

Mabuya striata
Euprepes striata

The African striped skink (Trachylepsis striata), commonly called the striped skink, is a lizard in the skink family (Scincidae). The species is widespread in East Africa and southern Africa. It is not a close relation to the Australian striped skink, Ctenotus taeniolatus.

Description

This skink is brown or bronze coloured with two yellowish stripes that run lengthwise on either side of the spine. Both sexes grow to a length of 25 cm.[1] Their tails are often missing due to predators.

Range and races

There are two races, the nominate with an eastern, and wahlbergi with a southwesterly distribution:[2]

Range: South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, DRC, Malawi, se Zambia, se Zimbabwe, ne South Africa, Swaziland
Range: s Angola, n Namibia, n Botswana, Zambia, w & n Zimbabwe, adjacent Zambezi valley in Mozambique[2]

Former races T. s. punctatissima and T. s. sparsa have been elevated to species level.[2]

References

  1. Spawls S, Howell KM, Drewes RC. Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa, Princeton:Princeton University Press, 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 Hallermann, Jakob; Uetz, Peter. "Trachylepis striata (PETERS, 1844)". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 8 January 2016.

External references

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 16, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.