SPECKLED SAND SKINK – Fig. 12

Trachylepis punctulata (Bocage, 1872)

MATERIAL.— Espinheira, 29 November 2013, 16º47ʹ20.6ʺS, 12º21ʹ27.2ʺE, 457 m (CAS 254793) ; Namibe-Lubango road, road marker 59, 1.8 km west (by road) of Caraculo, on the north side of the road, 6 December 2013, 15º0ʹ55.1ʺS, 12º38ʹ32.8ʺE, 497 m (CAS 254903) ; Praia do Navio coastal dunes, ca 124 km SSW of Namibe, 8 December 2013, 16º16ʹ20.4ʺS, 11º49ʹ53.9ʺE, 8 m (CAS 254769–254771) , 16º16ʹ39.3ʺS, 11º49ʹ20.5ʺE, 8 m (CAS 254775) .

COMMENTS.— The species was originally described by Bocage based on material from “Rio Coroca, sur le littoral de Mossamedes, Angola ” (Bocage 1872). The type locality is presumably the region near the mouth of Curoca River, from the vicinity of Tombwa (formerly Porto Alexandre). Our specimens were collected among plants between dunes along the coast south of Tombwa, and these agree morphologically with the original description for the species. A comparison with the type material was impossible due to its destruction in the fire that destroyed the Lisbon Museum in 1978. Several uncatalogued specimens in the Museu Nacional de História Natural do Porto collected in 1905 by the Portuguese explorer Francisco Newton are congruent with the specimens collected by us. Newton’s specimens are still in their original jar and are labeled “Mossamedes” (presumably refering to the province as a whole, not the city of Mossamedes = Namibe). They are part of a collection of vertebrates that the explorer made in the region. The herpetological specimens were only partly studied and published upon (Ferreira 1904, 1906; Ceríaco et al. 2014), in contrast to the bird and mammals collections (Seabra 1906 a, 1906b, 1906c, 1906d, 1907). It is probable that these specimens are from Tombwa, as this was the main place where Newton collected while in the province (see bird records – Seabra 1906a). This is a common species in much of Namibia, Botswana, and central South Africa, as well as portions of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique (Portik and Bauer 2012).