Flexiseps valhallae
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| ( Boulenger , 1909) |
Flexiseps valhallae ( synonyms : Sepsina valhallae , valhallae Scelotes , Amphiglossus valhallae ) is a potentially extinct Skinkart that the Glorioso Islands in the western Indian Ocean endemic was. The species is only known from three specimens collected at the beginning of the 20th century. The type epithet valhallae refers to the yacht Valhalla, the research ship of the expedition leader James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford .
features
Flexiseps valhallae was closely related to the Flexiseps melanurus skin map from Madagascar . The species differed by the width of the forehead shield and by the color. The head length of the type specimen is 16 mm, the body length 90 mm, the tail length 185 mm, the head width 12 mm, the length of the front limbs 12 mm and the length of the hind limbs 19 mm. The blunt snout hardly protrudes beyond the edge of the shield of the upper lip (labial). The eye size is moderate, the lower eyelids are scaled. The ear opening is much smaller than the eye opening. The forehead shield (frontal) is twice as long as the forehead-nasal intermediate shield (frontonasal) and is angularly notched on each side by the over-eye shield and backwards by the interparietal shield. There are six upper eye shields (superciliaria). The interparietal shield is longer than it is wide and half as long as the frontal shield. The fourth shield of the upper lip extends to the eye socket. The middle of the body is covered with 28 scales of equal size. There are five toes on the short limbs. The tail is long and thick. The top of the body is brown. There are brown transverse bands on the neck, which dissolve and gradually turn into small spots on the front part of the body and longitudinal stripes on the back of the body and tail. The underside of the body is white.
Systematics
George Albert Boulenger described this skinkart as Sepsina valhallae in 1909 . Robert Mertens placed them in 1934 in the genus Scelotes and Édouard-Raoul Brygoo in 1983 in the genus Amphiglossus . Jesse Erens , Aurélien Miralles , Frank Glaw , Lars Chatrou and Miguel Vences created the new genus Flexiseps in 2017 .
Habitat and way of life
Habitat and way of life have not been researched.
status
Flexiseps valhallae is currently not listed on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species . The type specimen was collected in 1905 by John Stanley Gardiner and Henry Harold Welch Pearson on the Île du Lys and two further specimens were collected in 1906 by Michael John Nicoll on Grande Glorieuse. In 2017 Mickaël Sanchez, Arthur Choeur and Jean-Michael Probst carried out a study on the Îles Glorieuses in order to record the reptiles indigenous to the IUCN Red List. Despite an intensive search, no copy was of valhallae Flexiseps found and in 2019 the status of "threatened with extinction" ( critically endangered ) with the addition "possibly extinct" ( possibly extinct suggested). Furthermore, Sanchez and his team were able to prove a historical presence of rats on the Île du Lys, cats and Etruscan shrews as well as a high level of habitat destruction on Grande Glorieuse.
Web links
- Flexiseps valhallae in The Reptile Database ; accessed on September 9, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b George A. Boulenger: A list of the freshwater fishes, batrachians and reptiles obtained by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner's expedition to the Indian Ocean. Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. 12, 1909, pp. 291-300
- ↑ Robert Mertens: Die Insel-Reptilien: their spread, variation and species formation In: Zoologica: Original treatises from the total area of zoology, No. 84, E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1934, p. 48
- ↑ Édouard-Raoul Brygoo: Systématique des lézards scincidés de la région malgache. X. Reports de Gongylus johannae Günther, 1880, des Comores, et de Sepsina valhallae Boulenger, 1909, des Glorieuses, avec les espèces malgaches. Bull. Mus. Natn. Hist. Nat. Paris 4th Ser. 5. Sect. A, No. 2, 1983, pp. 651-660
- ↑ Jesse Erens, Aurélien Miralles, Frank Glaw, Lars Chatrou, Miguel Vences: Extended molecular phylogenetics and revised systematics of Malagasy scincine lizards. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 107, 2017, pp. 466-472
- ↑ a b c Mickaël Sanchez, Arthur Choeur, Florin Bignon, Alexandre Laubin: Reptiles of the Iles Eparses, Indian Ocean: Inventory, Distribution, and Conservation Status. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 14 (2), 2019, pp. 481-502