Noronha skink

Trachylepis atlantica

Trachylepis atlantica is a lizard species from the family of skinks that occurs on the island of Fernando de Noronha on the northeast coast of Brazil.

Features

Trachylepis atlantica is of a dark color with some lighter points, and has a length of 7 to 10 cm. The tail is long and muscular, but also very fragile.

Way of life

The very common skink is a matched omnivore that feeds on both insects and plants as well as from the nectar of Erythrina velutina and eggs of their own species.

His enemies are introduced species such as the domestic cat.

Taxonomy

Trachylepis atlantica is the only New World species of the genus, the species could be reached by sea currents on the South American archipelago.

The lizard was first described in 1839 by John Edward Gray. The story of their taxonomy is full of change. In particular, it has been confused with Trachylepis maculata. According to recent speculation they could with the one from Peru ( under the synonym: Mabuya punctata) be tschudii identical species described Trachylepis, of the previously present only the type specimen and in a locality confusion does not seem impossible.

• Tiliqua punctata (Gray, 1839)
• Euprepis punctatus (Gray, 1839)
• Mabuia punctata (Gray, 1839)
• Mabuya punctata (Gray, 1839)
• Trachylepis ( Xystrolepis ) punctata ( Tschudi, 1845? )
• Mabuya maculata ( Andersson, 1900)
• Mabuya atlantica ( Schmidt, 1945)
• Euprepis atlanticus ( Schmidt, 1945)