Red List of South African Species

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Least Concern (LC)
Assessors: Aaron Bauer Werner Conradie
Facilitators: Graham Alexander Krystal Tolley
Reviewers: John Measey Alex Rebelo Nicolas Telford

Rationale (Changed due to Same category and criteria)

Widespread and common, with no major identifiable extrinsic threats, hence is assessed as Least Concern.

Distribution

Endemic to South Africa, occurring only in the western parts of the Northern Cape and in a small part of the adjoining Western Cape provinces (Bates et al. 2014) with an extent of occurrence of more than 60,000 km2. Its proximity to the Namibian border suggests that it may also occur in that country. Recorded localities also suggest there may be two isolated subpopulations.

Population trend

Trend

The population is inferred to be stable.

Threats

There are no major threats to this species.

Uses and trade

Not known to be utilized or trade in any way.

Conservation

The range coincides with some protected areas. The current understanding of this species distribution suggests that there might be two isolated subpopulations. This however, could be due to poor sampling in the intervening area. Therefore, better survey data would assist to understand the subpopulation status.

References 

[@electronic{181632,
 address = {www.iucnredlist.org},
 author = {IUCN},
 title = {The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018-2},
 year = {2018}
}
,@book{612,
 address = {Pretoria},
 author = {Bates, M.F., Branch, W.R., Bauer, A.M., Burger, M., Marais, J., Alexander, G.J. and de Villiers, M.S.},
 publisher = {Suricata 1. South African National Biodiversity Institute},
 title = {Atlas and Red List of the Reptiles of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland},
 year = {2014}
}
,@article{10241,
 author = {Bauer, A.M. and Branch, W.R.},
 journal = {Herpetological Natural History},
 pages = {111--160},
 title = {The herpetofauna of the Richtersveld National Park and the adjacent northern Richtersveld, Northern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa},
 volume = {8},
 year = {2003}
}
,@article{41230,
 author = {Lamb, T., Biswas, S. and Bauer, A.M.},
 journal = {Zootaxa},
 pages = {33--46},
 title = {A phylogenetic reassessment of African fossorial skinks in the subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae): evidence for parallelism and polyphyly},
 volume = {2657},
 year = {2010}
}
,@article{41230,
 author = {Daniels, S.R., Heideman, N.J.L., Hendricks, M.G.J. and Crandall, K.A.},
 journal = {Zoologica Scripta},
 number = {4},
 pages = {353--362},
 title = {Taxonomic subdivisions within the fossorial skink subfamily Acontinae (Squamata: Scincidae) reconsidered: a multilocus perspective},
 volume = {35},
 year = {2006}
}
,@article{44974254,
 author = {Broadley, D.G. and Greer, A.E.},
 journal = {Arnoldia (Rhodesia)},
 pages = {1--27},
 title = {A revision of the genus <i>Acontias</i> Cuvier (Sauria: Scincidae)},
 volume = {4},
 year = {1969}
}
,@phdthesis{44974254,
 author = {Janse van Vuuren, L.C.},
 school = {M.Sc. thesis, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa},
 title = {A Taxonomic Study of the Genus <i>Microacontias</i> (Reptillia: Acontiinae) using DNA and Morphometric Data},
 year = {2009}
}
,]
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