Two New Species of Limbless Skinks in the Genus Melanoseps and Scolecoseps from Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya

Le résumé fourni par la source

Two new species of burrowing limbless skinks, Melanoseps sokokensis sp. nov. and Scolecoseps ashei sp. nov., are described from the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in coastal Kenya. Melanoseps sokokensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners by having the postnasal fused with the supranasal and a brown rather than black body colour. Scolecoseps ashei sp. nov. differs from all other Scolecoseps by having a mean number of 103 ventral scales while its congeners have more than 120. It is distinctly striped like S. boulengeri and S. broadleyi but differs from S. litipoensis which is uniform black. These two new limbless skink species are geographically restricted to the coastal forest mosaic vegetation type. The two new species are seldom found due to their fossorial habits, with Melanoseps sokokensis sp. nov. known only from the holotype and Scolecoseps ashei sp. nov., from 6 specimens. For both species, further studies on distribution and natural history are needed, but for now a conservation status of Data Deficient may be appropriate.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.