Trachylepis polytropis
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Trachylepis polytropis on Bioko |
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| Trachylepis polytropis | ||||||||||||
| ( Boulenger , 1903) |
Trachylepis polytropis is a skinkart that is common in western central Africa.
features
Trachylepis polytropis has a head-trunk length of up to 10 centimeters, the total length is up to 28 centimeters.
The head is covered with symmetrical scales. The pupil is round. The nostrils do not touch the rostral shield , the supranasalia may or may not touch, the prefrontals almost always touch. There are four supraocularia . The two large central nuchalia extend over more than half of the posterior parietals . There are six to eight supraciliaria . The dorsal scales are five to ten times keeled, mostly seven times, those of the middle back are not enlarged. The middle of the body has 30 to 34 rows of scales.
The limbs are long and largely overlap when folded along the body. Each limb has five fingers. The tail is 1.5 to twice as long as the body. The back is brownish with often very pronounced black lines that have a wave or zigzag shape. A dark band starts behind the eyes and gradually runs out on the sides of the neck or the flanks. Under the dark band there is a whitish area on the neck, which sometimes continues over part of the flanks. The ventral side is light green.
Occurrence and way of life
The distribution area of Trachylepis polytropis extends from southern West Africa ( Liberia , Ivory Coast , Ghana ) over the equator to the two Congos. In Togo , Benin and Nigeria the species is apparently absent, but within continental areas it radiates into the Central African Republic .
Trachylepis polytropis is found in dense forests. During the day, however, he occasionally leaves it and visits the plantations of neighboring villages, where he hunts insects and spiders .
Systematics
The species was first described in 1903 by George Albert Boulenger as Mabuia polytropis . In 2002, phylogenetic studies led to the division of the genus Mabuya into the genera Euprepis , Eutropis , Chioninia and Mabuya (in the narrower sense) and the species was placed in the genus Euprepis . In 2003, Aaron M. Bauer stated that Euprepis was not a valid name according to the rules of the ICZN and suggested the generic name Trachylepis for the African and Malagasy species .
The subspecies Trachylepis polytropis paucisquamis ( Hoogmoed , 1978) was raised to species rank. It is limited to the western part of the distribution area between Liberia and Ghana.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jean-François Trape, Laurent Chirio, Sébastien Trape: Lézards, crocodiles et tortues d'Afrique occidentale et du Sahara , IRD Editions, ISBN 2-7099-1726-2 , 2012, pp. 404-405.
- ↑ Laurent Chirio, Matthew LeBreton: Atlas des reptiles du Cameroun , IRD Editions, ISBN 2-85653-603-4 , 2007, pp. 292-293.
- ↑ Patrick Mausfeld, Andreas Schmitz, Wolfgang Böhme, Bernhard Misof, Davor Vrcibradic, Carlos Frederico Duarte Rocha: Phylogenetic Affinities of Mabuya atlantica Schmidt, 1945, Endemic to the Atlantic Ocean Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha (Brazil): Necessity of Partitioning the Genus Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826 (Scincidae: Lygosominae). Zoologischer Anzeiger, 241, 3, pp. 281-293, 2002.
- ^ Aaron M. Bauer: On the identity of Lacerta punctata Linnaeus, 1758, the type species of the genus Euprepis Wagler, 1830, and the generic assignment of Afro-Malagasy skinks. African Journal of Herpetology, 52, pp. 1-7, 2003.
- ↑ Trachylepis polytropis in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved January 19, 2014.
Web links
- Trachylepis polytropis in The Reptile Database
- Trachylepis polytropis inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Posted by: Trape, J., 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2014.