Meroles Gray, 1838

Marques, Mariana P., Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Blackburn, David C. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2018, Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840 - 2017), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 65, pp. 1-501 : 218-220

Genus Meroles Gray, 1838

Meroles anchietae (Bocage, 1867) ANCHIETA’S DUNE LIZARD

Pachyrhynchus Anchietae Bocage 1867b:227 , figs. 1–2. Holotype: MBL specimen number unknown (collector J.A. d’Anchieta), destroyed by fire 18 March 1978. Type locality: “Mossamedes” subsequently changed to “Rio Coroca, dans le littoral de Mossamedes,” Namibe Province, Angola ( Bocage 1895a:33).

Pachyrhynchus Anchietae : Bocage (1895a:33, 1897a:195).

Aporosaura anchietae : Boulenger (1887:117, 1921:376), Loveridge (1936a:63), Frade (1963:253), Arnold (1989:213, 1991:784).

Meroles anchietae : Branch (1998:164), Ceríaco et al. (2016a:36, 56).

Global conservation status (IUCN): Not Evaluated.

Global distribution: The species is known from the dunes of the Namib Desert in southwestern Angola and western Namibia.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 173): The species occurs in the desert regions of Namibe Province. Namibe: “Rio Coroca, dans le littoral de Mossamedes” [-15.78333, 12.06667] ( Bocage 1867b:227, 1895a:33, 1897a:195; Boulenger 1887:117, 1921:376; Loveridge 1936a:63; Ceríaco et al. 2016a:56); “Porto Alexandre” [-15.80000, 11.83333] (Ceríaco et al. 2016a:36); “Praia do Navio coastal dunes, ca. 124 km SSW of Namibe ”

[-16.27475, 11.81806] (Ceríaco et al.

2016a:36); “ Foz de Cunene ” [-17.28333,

11.80000] (Ceríaco et al. 2016a:36).

Taxonomic and distributional notes:

Arnold (1989) demonstrated that Aporosaura

Boulenger, 1887, the generic name under which this species was long known, is a synonym of Meroles Gray, 1838 . Until recently the only published data for Angola was from the type locality, but recently an individual was collected in “Praia do Navio coastal dunes, ca.

124 km SSW of Namibe ” (Ceríaco et al.

2016a). In the Museu de História Natural da

Universidade do Porto, Portugal, the Francisco

Newton collections include uncatalogued specimens of this species also from “Mossamedes”

(M. Marques and L. Ceríaco, pers. obs.) and MAP 173. Distribution of Meroles anchietae in Angola.

the Ditsong National Natural History Museum has some material collected by Wulf Haacke from “Porto Alexandre” and “Foz de Cunene” (Ceríaco et al. 2016a). This species is endemic to the Namib Desert, from the Klinghardt Mountains in southern Namibia to southern Angola ( Branch 1998).

Meroles reticulatus (Bocage, 1867) RETICULATE SAND LIZARD

Scapateira (?) reticulata Bocage 1867b:225 . Syntypes: MBL specimen number unknown (collector J.A. d’Anchieta), destroyed by fire 18 March 1978. Type locality: “Mossamedes, Western Africa” restricted to “Rio Coroca,” Namibe Province, Angola by Bocage (1897a:195).

Scapateira reticulata : Bocage (1870:68, 1895a:32, 1897a:195), Strauch (1867:404), Boulenger (1887:111, 1921:357), Loveridge (1936a:63).

Scapteira serripes : Boulenger (1887:111).

Meroles reticulatus : Szczerbak (1975:45), Arnold

(1989:213), Branch (1998:167), Bauer and Günther (1995:55), Ceríaco et al. (2016a:36, 56).

Global conservation status (IUCN): Not

Evaluated.

Global distribution: The species is known from the gravel plains of the Namib

Desert in southwestern Angola and northern

Namibia.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 174): The species occurs in the southwestern Angola near the coast. Benguela: “Benguella” [-12.58333,

13.41667] ( Boulenger 1887:111; Szczerbak

1975:45; Bauer and Günther 1995:55). Namibe: “Mossamedes” [-15.78333, 12.06667]

( Bocage 1867a:225; Boulenger 1887:112; MAP 174. Distribution of Meroles reticulatus in Loverdige 1963:63; Ceríaco et al. 2016a:56); Angola.

“ Rio Coroca” [-15.78333, 12.06667] ( Bocage 1895a:32, 1897a:195; Boulenger 1887:111; Bauer and Günther 1995:55; Ceríaco et al. 2016a:56); “ Praia do Navio coastal dunes, ca. 124 km SSW of Namibe ” [-16.27758, 11.82236] (Ceríaco et al. 2016a:36).

Taxonomic and distributional notes: Bocage’s (1867a) doubts about the species’ inclusion in Scapteira were laid to rest by Strauch (1867). Boulenger (1887, 1921) noted that one of the types of S. reticulata from “Benguella” was present in Berlin. Bauer and Günther (1995) identified this specimen as ZMB 6475, and although not found at the time of their writing, it has since been locat- ed. However, although this specimen was collected by d’Anchieta and received from Bocage, it cannot be one of the types, as all five syntypes were from Mossamedes. Similarly to M. anchietae , there are very few published records for the species in Angola.

Meroles squamulosus ( Peters, 1854) COMMON ROUGH-SCALED LIZARD

Ichnotropis squamulosa Peters 1854:617 . Syntypes: ZMB 6614 , 6615 , 6616 fide Bauer et al. (1995:58). Type locality: “Tette” [= Tete], Mozambique.

Ichnotropis squamulosa : Monard (1937b:74), Loveridge (1957:234), Branch (1998:163), Edwards et al. (2012:4), Engleder et al. (2013:132).

Meroles squamulosus : Edwards et al. (2013a:101), Bates et al. (2014:164), Conradie et al. (2016:25) .

Global conservation status (IUCN): Not Evaluated.

Global distribution: Meroles squamulosus occurs from Angola and Tanzania southwards through Zimbabwe, central Mozambique, Botswana, eastern Namibia, and northeastern South Africa.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 175): The species occurs in southern Angola east of the arid southwestern zone. Huíla: “Kapelongo”

[-14.88333, 15.08333] ( Monard 1937b:74).

Cunene: “ Pereira de Eça [= Ondijiva])”

[-17.06666667, 15.73333333] ( Conradie et al.

2016:25). Cuando Cubango: “Cuito basin

(30e)” [-17.51430, 20.05527] ( Conradie et al.

2016:9, 10, 25); “Cuito basin (35)” [-16.62322,

19.05352] ( Conradie et al. 2016:9, 12, 25).

Taxonomic and distributional notes: A recent analysis using nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data revealed that this species, long known by the name Ichnotropis squamulosa , is strongly supported as a member of the genus

Meroles ( Edwards et al. 2012; Engleder et al.

2013; Edwards et al. 2013a). Confusion with

MAP 175. Distribution of Meroles squamulosus in members of the genus Ichnotropis is under- Angola.

standable, as they are very similar morphologically ( Edwards et al. 2012; Edwards et al. 2013a). The geographic range and habitat of I. squamulosa overlaps with that of a number of Ichnotropis , but not that of other Meroles ( Branch 1998) .