''Barkudia'' is a little-known

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

skink Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. These lizards are thought to be semi-

fossorial A fossorial animal () is one that is adapted to digging and which lives primarily (but not solely) underground. Examples of fossorial vertebrates are Mole (animal), moles, badgers, naked mole-rats, meerkats, armadillos, wombats, and mole salamand ...

, and living in

coastal A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

areas of the east coast of India. Almost nothing is known about the natural history of this genus, except for classical taxonomic texts. There are two species: *'' Barkudia insularis'' Annandale, 1917 — Madras spotted skink, distributed in the Circar Coast (

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

) *''

Barkudia melanosticta ''Barkudia melanosticta'' Common name, commonly known as Visakhapatnam limbless skink or Russell's legless skink is a skink Endemism, endemic to Vishakapatnam region of Circar Coast, in Andhra Pradesh state of southeastern India. One of the forem ...

'' (Schneider, 1801) — Visakhapatnam limbless skink, Russell's legless skink, distributed in parts of Circar Coast

References

Barkudia Lizard genera Endemic fauna of India Taxa named by Nelson Annandale {{Skink-stub