Scincus scincus cucullatus Werner 1914:343

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 : 235-237

Scincus scincus cucullatus Werner 1914:343 , pl., fig. 2.

1914 Scincus officinalis var. cucullata Werner, Ergebnisse einer von Prof. F. Werner im Sommer 1910 mit Unterstützung aus dem Legate Wedl ausgeführten zoologsichen Forschungsreise nach Algerien. II. Vertebrata. Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, 123:331–361, 1 pl.

HOLOTYPE.— NHMW 10386 :3, “Tripolis.” The original publication does not mention the locality of the type, but refers to the variety as “der ostalgerisch-tunesisch-tripolitanischen” race.

Scincus scincus [part], Le Berre 1989:226.

Scinsus scincus cucullatus, Schleich, Kästle, and Kabisch 1996:362 .

Scincus scincus cucullatus, Sindaco and Jeremčenko 2008:200 .

Scincsus scincus cucullatus, Trape, Trape, and Chirio 2012:386 . DISTRIBUTION.— Algeria, Niger and northwestern Nigeria and east through Libya, Sudan, and Egypt to Sinai, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, southwestern Iran and the majority of the Arabian Peninsula (Sindaco and Jeremčenko 2008). In Libya records are scattered patchily across the country. Although subspecific boundaries are unclear, northwest Tripolitanian specimens are usually allocated to S. s. cucullatus , whereas other areas of Libya harbor the nominotypical form. Kufrah is a special case as specimens from this areas have variously been allocated to S. s. scincus or S. albifasciatus (see Comments).

Libyan Records (Map 44): TRIPOLITA-

NIA: ZAWIYAH: 19: BMNH 1955.1.8. 70–73;

Arnold and Leviton 1977. JAFARA: 27: Sayers

1964. TRIPOLI: 39: FMNH 82969; MCZ R

22352, R 22354; Arnold and Leviton 1977. 45:

CAS 12751; MNHN 1976.371; MZUT R1995;

NHMW 10386; NMP 6300–09; ZMB 15288–

95, 15318–19, 19563; Boettger 1893; Condorelli-Francaviglia 1896; Werner 1909; Ghigi

1913; Zavattari 1930, 1934; Arnold and Leviton 1977. FEZZAN: WADI AL SHATII: 210: Essghaier et al. 2015. GHAT: 239: Scortecci 1937a.

249: MCSN 2275, 2291–92, 2304–05, 2312,

2510, 3033; Zavattari 1934, 1937; Scortecci

1937a. 252: Scortecci 1937a. 253: Scortecci

1937a. 255: Scortecci 1937a. WADI AL HAYAA:

269: Essghaier et al. 2015. MURZUQ: 303: Essghaier et al. 2015. 306: ZCT 2006.35; Ibrahim MAP 44. Distribution of Scincus scincus in Libya. 2008a. 307: ZCT 2006.50–52; Ibrahim 2008a. 318: ZCT 2006.42, 2006.60; Ibrahim 2008a. 324: MCSN 2300. “ Sahara tripolitain ”: Angel and Lhote 1938. CYRENAICA: AL WAHAT: 544: UUMZ 56615. 564: BMNH 1932.3.6. 18; MCSN 2276; MCSN 2458; MSNG 31578; Peters 1880, 1881; Werner 1909; Arnold and Leviton 1977; Zavattari 1929, 1930, 1934, 1937; Vinciguerra 1931. KUFRAH: 568: MZUF 00863; Scortecci 1935b, 1937. 573: Vinciguerra 1931; Zavattari 1934, 1937; Scortecci 1935c. 575: MF 863; MSNG 31577; Vinciguerra 1931; Arnold and Leviton 1977. Kufrah: BMNH 1987.1026. LIBYA: MCSN 2290; MZUF 20621–22.

COMMENTS.— Arnold and Leviton (1977) referred to a single Linnean “type” of Lacerta scincus , implicitly designating this specimen as the lectotype. This action should restrict the type locality to that associated with the lectotype, but Linnaeus (1749) did not provide a specific locality for the specimen. Šmíd et al. (2014) listed this specimen as the holotype, however, the original description provides indications to seven works (Gronovius, Seba, Besler, Olearius, Ray [see Bauer 2012 for full citations], and Hasselquist (1750b, 1757) in addition to Linnaeus’ (1749) own description in the Amoenitates. Specific individuals described or depicted in all of these works form part of the original syntype series.

Arnold and Leviton (1977), Griffiths et al. (2000) and Carranza et al. (2008) have outlined a number of intrageneric taxonomic problems in Scincus . Arnold and Leviton (1977), based on color pattern, considered material from northwest Tripolitania assignable to Scincus s. cucullatus , material from Cyrenaica to intermediates between S. s. cucullatus and S. s. scincus , and that from Kufrah to Scincus albifasciatus . Schleich et al. (1996) indicated that the nominotypical form occurred from eastern Libya eastwards, whereas S. s. cucullatus occupied western Libya, Eastern Algeria, and southern Tunisia. They considered Scincus s. laterimaculatus (now treated as a subspecies of S. albifasciatus by most authors) as occurring in southern Morocco and parts of western Algeria. Sindaco and Jeremčenko (2008) questionably regarded S. albifasciatus as a species separate from S. scincus , with S. a. laterimaculatus as a northwestern subspecies. Within S. scincus they recognized four subspecies, S. s. scincus , S. s. cucullatus , S.s. conirostris Blanford, 1881 (eastern Arabia to Iran) and S. s. meccensis Wiegmann, 1837 (southern Jordan and into Arabia). Although they mapped records from Kufrah as S. scincus (presumably the nominate subspecies) they cited Kufrah as being within the range of S. a. albifasciatus , although they did not map this locality for that species. 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. As the nearest locality of S. albifasciatus is more than 2000 km away from Kufrah, we agree with recent authors that southeast Libyan specimens bearing the albifasciatus markings are convergent in this pattern with S. albifasciatus sensu stricto (type locality “ Dakar,” Senegal). 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.

IUCN THREAT STATUS.— Not assessed, but assumed to be Least Concern.