Acontias albigularis

Acontias albigularis, the white-throated legless skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. It is endemic to South Africa.[2]

Acontias albigularis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Genus: Acontias
Species:
A. albigularis
Binomial name
Acontias albigularis
Conradie, Busschau, & Edwards, 2018

Diagnosis. A medium sized legless skink assigned to the genus Acontias (part) based on the body being moderately attenuate, snout not strongly acutely angled, movable eyelids present, lower eyelid immovable, and overall genetic placement. Distinguished from A. jappi, A. kgalagadi, A. lineatus (previously included in Typhlosaurus), and A. schmitzi in possessing moveable eyelids. It can be distinguished from other congeners possessing moveable eyelids by: ventral pigmentation concentrated at posterior scale margins giving a checkered appearance (all species except A. breviceps and A. sp. 2) compared to dorsally and ventrally uniform (A. plumbeus, A. occidentalis (part)) or no ventral pigmentation (A. gracilicauda, A. meleagris complex, A. lineicauda, A. occidentalis (part), A. namaquensis, and A. percivali). It can be distinguished from typical A. breviceps and A. sp. 2 by the lack of pigmentation in the region around the throat and the cloaca, and lower average number of scales around the midbody (14 scales vs 16 in both A. breviceps and A. sp. 2). It differs from A. breviceps in that the second upper label is touching the eye 17 out of 19 (90%) times (vs 1 out of 39 ~5%). In the phylogenetic analysis, it is sister to A. gracilicauda, from which it differs by 2.2 ± 0.6 % (16S mtDNA) and 3.5 ± 0.7 % (Cytb mtDNA) sequence divergence. It further differs 5.3 ± 1.2 % (16S) and 7.0 ± 0.9 % (Cytb) from A. breviceps, and 2.1 ± 0.8 % (16S) and 3.6 ± 0.7 % (Cytb) from. A. sp. 2.[2]

References
  1. Conradie, W. 2018. Acontias albigularis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T128870755A128870799. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T128870755A128870799.en. Downloaded on 07 October 2019.
  2. Acontias albigularis at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 5 July 2019.


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