Sepsina

Sepsina is a genus of skinks (family Scincidae). The genus is endemic to southern Africa.[3]

Sepsina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Scincidae
Subfamily: Scincinae
Genus: Sepsina
Bocage, 1866[1]
Species

5, see text.

Synonyms

Taxonomy

This genus is presently placed in the subfamily Scincinae, a subfamily which seems to be paraphyletic however. Sepsina belongs to a major clade of this group which does not seem to include the type genus Scincus. Thus, it will probably be eventually assigned to a new, yet-to-be-named subfamily.[4]

Species

The following five species are recognized:[3]

  • Sepsina alberti Hewitt, 1929
  • Sepsina angolensis Bocage, 1866
  • Sepsina bayoni (Bocage, 1866)
  • Sepsina copei Bocage, 1873
  • Sepsina tetradactyla W. Peters, 1874

Etymology

The specific name, bayoni, is in honor of Francisco Antonio Pinheiro Bayão, a Portuguese planter in Angola, who collected the holotype.[5]

The specific name, copei, is in honor of American herpetologist and paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope.[5]

Unfortunately, Hewitt did not explain to whom the specific name, alberti, refers. It may be in honor of Albert I of Belgium, or Belgian-British herpetologist George Albert Boulenger, or an altogether different unsung Albert.[5]

References
  1. "Sepsina ". Dahms Tierleben. www.dahmstierleben.de.
  2. Boulenger GA (1887). Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume III. Lacertidæ, Gerrhosauridæ, Scincidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 575 pp. + Plates I- XL. (Genus Sepsina, p. 417).
  3. "Sepsina ". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  4. Austin & Arnold 2006.
  5. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Sepsina alberti, p. 4; Sepsina bayoni, p. 20; Sepsina copei, p. 59).

Further reading
  • Austin JJ, Arnold EN (2006). "Using ancient and recent DNA to explore relationships of extinct and endangered Leiolopisma skinks (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the Mascarene islands". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39 (2): 503–511. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.12.011 (HTML abstract)
  • Bocage JVB (1866). "Reptiles nouveaux ou peu connus recueillis dans les possessions portugaises de l'Afrique occidentale, qui se trouvent au Muséum de Lisbonne". Jornal de Sciencias Mathematicas Physicas e Naturaes, Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa 1: 57–78. (Sepsina, new genus, p. 62; Sepsina angolensis, new species, p. 63; Dumerilia, new genus, p. 63; Dumerilia bayonii, new species, pp. 63–64). (in French).
  • Branch, Bill (2004). Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. ISBN 0-88359-042-5. (Genus Sepsina, p. 145; Sepsina alberti, p. 145 + Plate 49; Sepsina angolensis, p. 146 + Plate 101).


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