Teratoscincus scincus (Schlegel, 1858:16)

Wagner, Philipp, Bauer, Aaron M., Leviton, Alan E., Wilms, Thomas M. & Böhme, Wolfgang, 2016, A Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Afghanistan *, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 63 (13), pp. 457-565 : 492

Teratoscincus scincus (Schlegel, 1858:16)

1858 Stenodactylus scincus Schlegel, Handleiding tot de Beoefening der Dierkunde , vols. 1 and 2. Natuurkundige Leercursus ten gebruike der Koninlijke Militarie Akademie. Koninlijke Militarie Akademie (Hubert-G. Nys, printer), Breda [ The Netherlands]. xx + 628 + (2) pp., pls. 1–27.

LECTOTYPE.— RMNH 245 from the “zandige oevers der Ili-rivier [Ilo River], ten oosten van Turkestan.” [ Ili River Valley of Xinjiang Uygur, China fide Zhao and Adler 1993].

LOCALITIES.— 20 km S of Andkhoy (CAS 120315–16) [see pl. 7, fig. 5 for distribution].

REMARKS.— Teratoscincus scincus was mentioned by Szczerbak and Golubev (1986) from Harirud River near Herat referencing the record in Boettger (1888). Clark (1990) specifically mentioned T. scincus scincus from Andkhoy, stating that none of his other recognized Teratoscincus taxa had been mentioned for Afghanistan by Szczerbak and Golubev (1986). However, in the English version of the latter publication the record from Herat (Szczerbak and Golubev 1996:36) is mentioned as “in error in original, source unknown–MG”. This could be due to a citation error, as it is not Boettger (1888) but Boulenger (1889:94) who mentioned and figured (pl. IV, fig. 1) “ Teratoscincus scincus ” from “Hari-rud river near Tirphul” that probably refers to the specimen BMNH 1886.9.21. 7. Moreover, the other mentioned Afghan localities now refer to Teratoscincus keyserlingii (q.v.). We have examined the specimens from Andkhoy and they clearly are referable to T. scincus . Therefore, we recognize both former subspecies as distinct species in Afghanistan.