Scincus albifasciatus albifasciatus Boulenger, 1890:85

Bauer, Aaron M., DeBoer, Jonathan C. & Taylor, Dylan J., 2017, Atlas of the Reptiles of Libya, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 64 (8), pp. 155-318 : 267

Scincus albifasciatus albifasciatus Boulenger, 1890:85 , pl. 11, fig. 5

Specimens of Scincus from Kufrah have been assigned to S. albofasciatus (type locality “ Dakar, Senegambia” [ Senegal]).by Arnold and Leviton (1977), and although Sindaco and Jeremčenko (2008) mapped records from Kufrah as S. scincus (presumably the nominate subspecies) they cited Kufrah as being within the range of S. a. albifasciatus . Trape et al. (2012) assigned Kufrah Scincus records to S. s. scincus and plotted no S. albifasciatus records east of eastern Niger. However, they did plot records in extreme southeastern Algeria, adjacent to the Libyan border near Ghat. Given the more than 2000 km separating Kufrah from the nearest confirmed S. albofasciatus localities, we suggest that southeast Libyan specimens are likely convergent with this species. However, if the interpretation of Trape et al. (2012) is correct, it is likely that S. a. albifasciatus does enter Libya in the southwest. Unfortunately, the only molecular study to date did not include specimens from Libya, so confirmation of this hypothesis awaits further study. As the taxonomy of Scincus scincus in Libya remains unsettled we have not differentially plotted locality records by subspecies.