''Acontias mukwando'', the Serra da Neve lance-skink, is a species of

lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

in the family Scincidae. It is only known to exist in Serra da Neve in the

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Namibe province Namibe Province is a Provinces of Angola, province of Angola. Under Portuguese Angola, Portuguese rule it was the Moçâmedes District. It has an area of 57,091 km2 and had a 2014 census population of 495,326. The port and city of Namibe, Mo ...

. The species was first documented by Mariana P. Marques, Diogo Parrinha, Arthur Tiutenko, Manuel Lopes-Lima, Aaron M. Bauer & Luis M. P. Ceríaco in 2023.

Description

''Acontias mukwando'' is a medium-sized member of the genus ''

Acontias ''Acontias'' is a genus of limbless skinks, the lance skinks, (family Scincidae) in the African subfamily Acontinae.Branch 2004. Most are small animals, but the largest member of the genus is '' Acontias plumbeus'' at approximately snout-vent ...

'' measuring a length of 172.2 mm (6.77 in). The species lacks limbs or ear openings and is distinguished for other member of ''

'' by its exposed eyes and 3 chin shields. It has pink body pigmentation with dark dorsal pigmentation and a dark brown band that runs the mid-dorsal region. Its midbody scale row numbers between 15 and 18 scales with 172-178 ventral scales.

Habitat

''Acontias mukwando'' inhabits the Serra da Neve inselberg in

, southwestern

. It is known to forage in the leaf litter of the

Miombo Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located in central and southern tropical Africa. It includes three woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) chara ...

forest which dominates the Serra da Neve inselberg area.

Etymology

''Acontias mukwando'' is named for the noun "mukwando" in honor of the Catchi villagers of Serra da Neve inselberg, who provided assistance to the team that first documented it.

References

mukwando Skinks of Africa Endemic reptiles of South Africa Legless lizards Reptiles described in 2023 {{Skink-stub