ANGOLAN BLUE-TAILED SKINK

Trachylepis laevis (Boulenger, 1907)

MATERIAL.— INP, north of Tambor, 4 December 2013, 15º59ʹ47.1ʺS. 12º24ʹ25.6ʺE, 314 m (CAS 254838) .

COMMENTS.— The species was described by Boulenger from Maconjo, in northern Namibe Province (Boulenger 1907b). Laurent (1964a) recorded this species in Namibe Province from “Munhino 50 km west of Sá da Bandeira.” Hellmich (1957a) cited the species for Piri-Dembos, Kwanza Norte Province, but this record is dubious. The Ditsong National Natural History Museum houses numerous specimens from localities in Namibe and southern Benguela below the Escarpment. The species occurs also in the Kamanjab area and Damaraland in northwestern Namibia (Bauer et al. 1993). This lizard is extremely dorsoventrally depressed in association with its crevice dwelling habits and was, for a time, placed in a monotypic genus, Oelofisa, in recognition of its highly autapomorphic morphology (Steyn and Mitchell 1965).