Pseudoacontias

Pseudoacontias is genus of skinks, lizards in the family Scincidae.

Geographic range

The genus Pseudoacontias is endemic to Madagascar.<ref name=RDB>Template:NRDB genus</ref>

Description

All species of Pseudoacontias are large, fossorial skinks, measuring at least Template:Convert in snout–vent length. They lack limbs or have greatly reduced limbs.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Species

The genus contains the following species:<ref name=RDB/>

• Pseudoacontias angelorum Template:Small
• Pseudoacontias madagascariensis Template:Small – giant Madagascar skink
• Pseudoacontias menamainty Template:Small
• Pseudoacontias unicolor Template:Small

Etymology

The specific name, angelorum (genitive, masculine, plural), is in honor of twin brothers Angelien and Angeluc Razafimanantsoa who are Madagascan naturalists.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. Template:ISBN. (Pseudoacontias angelorum, p. 9).</ref>

Further reading

• Bocage JVB (1889). "Mélanges erpétologiques. I.—Sur un Scincoidien nouveau de Madagascar ". Jornal de Sciencias Mathematicas, Physicas e Naturaes, Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, Segunda Série 1: 125–126. (Pseudoacontias, new genus, p. 125; P. madagascariensis, new species, pp. 125–126). (in French).