BENGUELA SAND LIZARD

Pedioplanis benguellensis (Bocage, 1867)

MATERIAL.— Namibe-Lubango road, road marker 59, 1.8 km W (by road) from Caraculo, north side of the road, 6 December 2013, 15º00ʹ57.8ʺS, 13º38ʹ41.4ʺE, 476 m (CAS 254909), 15º00ʹ58.8ʺS, 13º38ʹ33.8ʺE, 491 m (CAS 254906), 15º00ʹ57.5ʺS, 12º38ʹ38.3ʺE, 482 m (CAS 254896) .

COMMENTS.— All of these specimens have ten to eleven longitudinal series of ventral plates and a single transparent scale in the lower eyelid. However, they also have two rows of granules separating supraoculars from supraciliaries, a character given by Conradie et al. (2012) as synapomorphic for P. haackei . The number of upper labials in front of the subocular is variable: CAS 254896 has three, CAS 254906 has five, and CAS 254909 has four. Molecular comparisons with specimens of P. benguellensis from Conradie et al. (2012) show these specimens to be conspecific (average uncorrected 16S p-distance of 1% from our specimens [GenBank accession numbers KU662319 to KU662321] from those of Conradie et al. [2012] [GenBank accession numbers HE794014.1, HE794012.1, HE794011.1, HE794010.1 and HE794013.1]).