Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis

Baptista, Ninda L., António, Telmo & Branch, William R., 2019, The herpetofauna of Bicuar National Park and surroundings, southwestern Angola: a preliminary checklist, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 203) 13 (2), pp. 96-130 : 115

Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis complex

Snake-eyed Skink ( Fig. 22A–B )

Material: NB516 ( T 3); NB548 ( T 1); NB549 ( T 2).

Comment: Small leaf-litter inhabiting skinks have numerous cryptic lineages in southern and eastern Africa ( Medina et al. 2016). Historically, Bocage (1895) report- ed on material from Caconda and Cahata collected by Anchieta, and recently P. maculicollis was recorded from southeastern Angola ( Conradie et al. 2016). A population of “ P. wahlbergi ” in northern Namibia was shown to form part of the P. maculicollis complex ( Medina et al. 2016) and was subsequently described as a new species, Panaspis namibiana ( Ceríaco et al. 2018a) . Snake-eyed skinks recently collected in BNP were assigned to P. aff. namibiana ( Butler et al. 2019) . BNP specimens from this study have fused anterior parietals, conforming to the P. wahlbergi complex, but prefrontals are well separated (see Fig. 22B ), distinguishing them from P. namibiana ( Ceríaco et al. 2018a) . The taxonomic status of the BNP population and its affinities to the P. maculicollis or P. wahlbergi radiations requires further study, as do other Angolan populations from Humpata, Quilengues, and the Cuanza Sul escarpment (Vaz Pinto and Baptista, unpub. data).

Figures

Fig. 22. Panaspis wahlbergi-maculicollis complex, BNP. Head (A) lateral view and (B) dorsal view.