Trachylepis maculata

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Trachylepis maculata
Trachylepis maculata head.png
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Genus: Trachylepis
Species:
T. maculata
Binomial name
Trachylepis maculata
(Gray, 1839)
Synonyms
  • Tiliqua maculata Gray, 1839
  • Mabuya maculata: Anderson, 1900
  • Trachylepis maculata: Miralles et al., 2009

Trachylepis maculata, the spotted mabuya, is a species of skink in the genus Trachylepis recorded from Demerara in Guyana, northern South America. It is placed in the genus Trachylepis , which is otherwise mostly restricted to Africa, and its type locality may be in error. [1] It is an unstriped, olive-brown, grayish animal, with dark spots all over the body. [2] Its taxonomic history is complex due to confusion with Trachylepis atlantica from the Atlantic Ocean island of Fernando de Noronha and doubts regarding its type locality.

Contents

Taxonomy

T. maculata was first described, as Tiliqua maculata, by Gray in 1839 on the basis of three specimens said to be from Demerara, Guyana. [1] On the same page, Gray described Tiliqua punctata from the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil. In 1887, the two names were considered by Boulenger to pertain to the same species, which was initially named Mabuya punctata but renamed Mabuya maculata by Anderson in 1900, because the latter name was preoccupied by an older name. In 1935, Dunn disputed that the two were identical, reinstated Mabuya punctata as the name for the Noronha species, apparently unaware that the name is preoccupied, and considered maculata to be the same as Mabuya mabouya . In 1946, Travassos again synonymized the two, naming the Noronha skink as Mabuya maculata. [3] In the early 2000s, the matter was revisited by Mausfeld and Vrcibradic, who examined the type specimens of punctata and maculata. They noted that punctata differs from maculata in having five instead of three keels on the dorsal scales; generally fewer scales; parietal scales separated, not in contact as in punctata; and fewer subdigital lamellae below the fourth finger and toe. [2] Consequently, they regarded the two as representing distinct species and recommended that the Fernando de Noronha species be named Mabuya atlantica and the Guyana one Mabuya maculata. [4] In 2002, it was realized that the genus Mabuya was not a natural grouping and a mainly African group of species which also includes the Fernando de Noronha skink was transferred to a separate genus, first named Euprepis and later Trachylepis . Since then, this species has been known as Trachylepis atlantica. [5] In 2009, Miralles and coworkers again considered the taxonomy of maculata, referring it to Trachylepis instead of Mabuya because the third supraocular and frontal are in contact, as in other species of Trachylepis. It also has auricular lobules and heavy keels on the dorsal scales. They were the first to use the current name combination, Trachylepis maculata. [1]

The origin and nature of T. maculata are still unclear. The collection from Demerara which included T. maculata included various species that have not been found in Guyana again, including some restricted to Caribbean islands or to other parts of South America. Consequently, Mausfeld and Vrcibradic suggested that T. maculata may be the same as similarly colored Caribbean Mabuya species or the Venezuelan Mabuya falconensis , [4] but these differ from T. maculata in a number of characters, indicating their membership in Mabuya instead of Trachylepis. T. maculata may in fact have come from Guyana, perhaps inadvertently introduced into Guyana from Africa, and subsequently become extinct; alternatively, the three known specimens may have been collected in Africa. Among African Trachylepis, Trachylepis perrotettii is regarded as most similar to T. maculata. [1]

Related Research Articles

Euprepis is an obsolete genus of skinks in the subfamily Lygosominae. It was named by Wagler in 1830 and frequently used in subsequent years, often misspelled as Euprepes, a misspelling introduced by Wiegmann in 1834. It was then subsumed under the large skink genus Mabuya, until Mausfeld and others resurrected it for a group of mainly African skinks they split from Mabuya. The following year, Bauer argued that this assignment had been in error and that this group should be called Trachylepis instead. Euprepis itself is a junior synonym of Mabuya.

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<i>Trachylepis</i> Genus of lizards

Trachylepis is a skink genus in the subfamily Mabuyinae found mainly in Africa. Its members were formerly included in the "wastebin taxon" Mabuya, and for some time in Euprepis. As defined today, Trachylepis contains the clade of Afro-Malagasy mabuyas. The genus also contains a species from the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, T. atlantica, and may occur in mainland South America with Trachylepis tschudii and Trachylepis maculata, both poorly known and enigmatic. The ancestors of T. atlantica are believed to have rafted across the Atlantic from Africa during the last 9 million years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lygosominae</span> Subfamily of lizards

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noronha skink</span> Species of skink

The Noronha skink is a species of skink from the island of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. It is covered with dark and light spots on the upperparts and is usually about 7 to 10 cm in length. The tail is long and muscular, but breaks off easily. Very common throughout Fernando de Noronha, it is an opportunistic feeder, eating both insects and plant material, including nectar from the Erythrina velutina tree, as well as other material ranging from cookie crumbs to eggs of its own species. Introduced predators such as feral cats prey on it and several parasitic worms infect it.

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Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Code), the name-bearing type is the biological type that determines the application of a name. Each animal taxon regulated by the Code at least potentially has a name-bearing type. The name-bearing type can be either a type genus, type species, or one or more type specimens. For example, the name Mabuya maculata has often been used for the Noronha skink, but because the name-bearing type of the former, a lizard preserved in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, does not represent the same species as the Noronha skink, the name maculata cannot be used for the latter.

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<i>Trachylepis nancycoutuae</i> Species of lizard

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Miralles et al., 2009, p. 62
  2. 1 2 Mausfeld and Vrcibradic, 2002, p. 293
  3. ↑ Mausfeld and Vrcibradic, 2002, p. 292
  4. 1 2 Mausfeld and Vrcibradic, 2002, p. 294
  5. ↑ Miralles et al., 2009

Literature cited

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