Mabouya punctatissima

Mabouya punctatissima is a skink described in 1872 on the basis of a single specimen. It was said to be from South Africa, but later researchers doubted that origin and aligned the species with the Noronha skink from Fernando de Noronha, off northeastern Brazil, instead. It is morphologically different from that species, however, and is currently placed in the genus Trachylepis as a species of uncertain identity.

In 1872, A.W.E. O'Shaughnessy described the new species Mabouya punctatissima on the basis of a specimen purchased from Charles Parzudaki and labeled as coming from the Cape of Good Hope, a location he considered "very doubtful".^[1] G.A. Boulenger, in 1887 synonymized it under Mabuia punctata (the Noronha skink) without comment,^[2] a position followed by H. Travassos with some doubt. The latter wrote that the description of punctatissima suggested to him that punctatissima and the Noronha skink are morphologically different, but that Boulenger's examination of the type and the uncertainty of the type locality inclined him to favor the synonymy.^[3] In 2002, P. Mausfeld and D. Vrcibradic re-examined the holotype and only known specimen. It is similar to T. atlantica, but larger, and lacks well-developed keels on its dorsal scales. Therefore, they suggested that it was not the same as T. atlantica and that its original locality may have been correct. Although it may represent a valid species of southern African Trachylepis, it is preoccupied by Euprepes punctatissimus Smith, 1849, also currently placed in Trachylepis.^[4]

References

Literature cited

• Boulenger, G.A. 1887. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second edition. Vol. III. Lacertidae, Gerrosauridae, Scincidae, Anelytropidae, Dibamidae, Chamaeleonidae. London: published by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 575 pp.
• Dunn, E.R. 1935. Notes on American Mabuyas (subscription required). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 87:533–557.
• Mausfeld, P. and Vrcibradic, D. 2002. On the nomenclature of the skink (Mabuya) endemic to the western Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil (subscription required). Journal of Herpetology 36(2):292–295.
• O'Shaughnessy, A.M.E. 1874. Descriptions of new species of Scincidae in the collection of the British Museum. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (4)13:298–301.
• Travassos, H. 1946. Estudo da variação de Mabuya punctata (Gray, 1839). Boletim do Museu Nacional (Zoologia) 60:1–56 (in Portuguese).