taxonID	type	description	language	source
03CD1E1DFF81DD1667D524E93EDB04A0.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis — Panaspis thomensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from other Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands Panaspis by the following characteristics 1) preocular and prefrontal scales in contact; 2) a medium SVL (31.1 – 47.7 mm); 3) the limbs do not touch each other when adpressed to the body; 4) an high number of paraventral scales (37 – 64); 5) between 10 to 14 lamellae under the fourth toe and 7 to 10 under the fourth finger; 6) an orange-brown coloration on the body.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF81DD1667D524E93EDB04A0.taxon	description	Description of the holotype — Adult male in good condition. Arrangement and relative size of head, body and tail scales typical for Panaspis (Fig. 3). Robust and cylindrical body with short pentadactyl limbs. Fore- and hind-limbs do not overlap when adpressed against the body. SVL 35.9 mm, tail length 39 mm. Head length 7.3 mm, with relatively acuminate snout (HL 155.4 % HW). Other relevant measurements are presented in Table 5. Rostral wider than long. Rostral visible from above, nostrils set posteriorly so that postnasal effectively borders nostril. Frontonasal wider than long, in contact with postnasal, two prefrontals and frontal. Prefrontals slightly hexagonal, separated by the frontal, and in contact with the following head shields: frontonasal, loreal, preocular, first supraoculars, and frontal. Two loreals, the posterior and dorsal margins of the largest loreal border one enlarged preocular. Frontal diamond-shaped, length 1.6 times the distance between anterior tip of frontal and tip of snout, in contact with prefrontals, the two anterior supraoculars and with both frontoparietals. Frontoparietals two, in contact with each other, the frontal, second, third and fourth supraoculars, parietal and interparietal. Frontoparietal plus interparietal length is 1.25 times the length of the frontal. Interparietal with visible parietal foramen; parietals about two times larger than frontoparietals and in contact at the anterior point of the interparietal. Parietals in broad contact. A pair of large, broad nuchals collectively bordered by a total of six dorsals. Supraciliaries six, fifth largest. Supralabials seven, the fifth being the subocular. Infralabials seven. Transparent scale present in lower eyelid. Two pre-temporals. Tympanum visible, approximately the same height as eye. Dorsal scales smooth, without keels. Ventral scales smooth. MSR 27, SAD 56, SAV 57. Limbs with five digits; scales on soles of hands and feet smooth. Relative length of fingers III> IV> II> I> V, relative length of toes IV> III> V> II> I. Finger-IV lamellae 8 (right side), Toe-IV lamellae 12 (right side). Tail long, robust and tapering smoothly. In preservative, background colour of flanks and upper side of head, neck, dorsum, legs and tail dark-brown, with darker dorso-lateral lines, and some light-coloured speckles in the limits of those lines. Between the dorso-lateral lines, incomplete and thinner dark lines run on the midbody. A thin dark lateral line runs from the tympanum to the beginning of the tail. Supralabials present a distinctive whitish blotch, surrounded anteriorly and posteriorly by scattered small dark spots. Infralabials present some dark-brown dots that extend to the chin. Venter uniformly whitish-yellow, although in the transition from venter to dorsal sides of the body, there is a dark-brown pigmentation, forming small disperse patches. Variation — Variation in scalation and body measurements of the paratypes of P. thomensis are reported in Table 5. The majority of the paratype agree entirely with the holotype, except regarding the contact between the prefrontals, which are separated, but not in the case of IICT 50 - 1954, MB 03 - 00949 and MHNG 2496.11, where the prefrontals contact narrowly at a single point. Colour — Colour in life (Fig. 4): orange-brown background on flanks and upper side of head, neck, dorsum, legs and tail, with a distinctive dark dorsolateral band, speckled with some light-coloured scales, starting near the tympanum and running along the entire dorsum to the anterior half of the tail. In some specimens, there are some irregular dark-brown lines in the dorsum, between the two dorsolateral bands. A dark-brown line starts on the top of the prefrontal and extends until the temporal, across the supraciliaries. Upper labials have a distinctive whitish blotch, surrounded anteriorly and posteriorly by scattered small dark spots. This pattern extends to the infralabials, and the small dark spots briefly enter into the limits of ventral side of the mandibula. Venter whitish, spotless. The underside of the tail bears scattered dark speckles. Female specimens have a vivid orange coloration between the cloaca and the anterior part of the tail. Comparison with other Gulf of Guinea Panaspis — Table 4 summarises the most important distinguishing characteristics between P. thomensis and all other Gulf of Guinea oceanic island Panaspis. Comparing P. thomensis with P. africana, P. thomensis the preocular scale is in contact with the prefrontal scale, whereas in P. africana the preocular is separated from the prefrontal by the obtrusion of the posterior supraciliar and the loreal. In P. thomensis the subocular (5 th supralabial) is twice as long as wide, whereas in P. africana it is approximately as long as wide. In the new species has a larger SVL (31 to 47 mm in P. thomensis versus 22 to 42 mm in P. africana), and a higher number of ventral scales between the mental and the cloaca (37 to 64 in P. thomensis versus 29 to 54 in P. africana). The two species do not exhibit any consistent differences in color, although Príncipe individuals tend to be darker than the São Tomé species. Despite the differences cited in the morphological and meristic cranial between P. thomensis and P. africana, both species are morphologically very similar. Comparing P. thomensis with the Annobon endemic Panaspis annobonensis, the new species has a higher number of MSR (24 to 29 in P. thomensis versus 24 to 27 in P. annobonensis), a slightly lower number of LUFT (10 to 14 in P. thomensis versus 13 to 17 in P. annobonensis) and lower number of LUFF (7 to 9 in P. thomensis versus 9 to 12 in P. annobonensis). In P. thomensis the upper palpebrals (usually 7) are roughly the same size, whereas in P. annobonensis the fifth upper palpebral is considerably larger, extending along almost the entire upper region of the eye. In P. thomensis the preocular scale is in contact with the prefrontal scale, whereas in P. annobonensis the preocular is separated from the prefrontal by the obtrusion of the posterior supraciliar and the loreal. In terms of coloration, P. annobonensis is considerably darker than P. thomensis, and has a well defined dark subocular band. The throat of P. annobonensis is homogeneously speckled with dark-brown speckles, whereas in P. thomensis these speckles only occur in the margins.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF81DD1667D524E93EDB04A0.taxon	distribution	Distribution — Endemic to São Tomé Island, Rolas Islet and Santana Islet, Republic of São Tomé & Príncipe, West Africa. Habitat and natural history notes — The newly described species occurs in the leaf litter of primary and secondary forests of São Tomé Island. It can sometimes be found along the limits of the forests, in more opened areas. Manaças ’ analysis of stomach contents revealed a diet composed of Dermaptera and other unidentified insects (Manaças 1958).	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF81DD1667D524E93EDB04A0.taxon	etymology	Etymology — The specific epithet “ thomensis ” refers to the Island of São Tomé and is applied here as a substantive in apposition. We propose the English name of “ São Tomé Leaf-litter Skink ” and the Portuguese name “ Lagartixa da manta morta de São Tomé ”.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	description	(Figs 5, 6)	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	description	Despite the taxonomic and nomenclatural issues regarding its identity, Panaspis africana is probably one of the most studied and well known species of the Príncipe herpetofauna (see for example Perret 1973 and Haft 1993). The abundance of the species on Príncipe, in forested areas, agricultural fields, but also wherever there is leaf litter, makes it one of the easiest species to locate in the Island of Príncipe. As noted above and shown in Table 4, all mensural, and the majority of meristic characters overlap considerably, turning problematic the decision regarding the allocation Gray (1845) holotype, which type locality is imprecise, to one of the two islands. Almost all of mensural and meristic characters of the holotype falls among the overlapping range. The only character that allows a tentative allocation of the original Gray holotype (Fig. 5) to Príncipe population is the separation between the preocular and prefrontal, because of the obtrusion of the posterior supraciliar and the loreal, as noted above, in the São Tomé population the preocular and the prefrontal contact. Consequently, we follow the original suggestion by Jesus et al. (2007), and restrict Mocoa africana type locality to Príncipe Island.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis — Panaspis africana. can be distinguished from other Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands Panaspis by the following characteristics 1) preocular and prefrontal scales not in contact; 2) a medium SVL (22 – 47.5 mm); 3) the limbs do not touch each other when adpressed to the body; 4) an high number of paraventral scales (29 – 54); 5) between 7 to 15 lamellae under the fourth toe and 6 to 10 under the fourth finger; 6) an orange-brown coloration on the body.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	description	Variation — Panaspis africana are characterised as small to medium-sized skinks (SVL 22 – 42.5 mm) with tail length approximately the 90 % of SVL, robust and tapering smoothly. Head wide and not very acuminate (HW / HL 65,6 %), approximately 21 % of SVL. Prefrontals always separated. Supraciliaries usually 4, sometimes 5 and rarely 6; 4 supralabials anterior to subocular; enlarged subocular in direct contact with the lip and not reduced basally by the intrusion of adjacent supralabials. Midbody scales rows 23 – 28, paravertebral scales 47 – 64, and paraventral scales 29 – 54. Lamellae beneath the fourth finger 6 – 10, beneath the fourth toe 7 – 15. Colour — Dark-brown background on flanks and upper side of head, neck, dorsum, legs and tail, with a distinctive dark dorsolateral band, speckled with some light-coloured scales, starting near the tympanum and running along the entire dorsum to the anterior half of the tail (Fig. 6). In some specimens, there are some irregular dark-brown lines in the dorsum, between the two dorsolateral bands. A dark-brown line starts on the top of the prefrontal and extends to the temporal, across the superciliaries. Upper labials exhibit a small whitish blotch, limited anteriorly and posteriorly by a dark band. This blotch extends to the infra labials, and the small dark spots briefly enter into the limits of ventral side of the mandibula. Venter and underside of the tail whitish, immaculate. Female specimens have vivid orange coloration between the cloaca and the anterior part of the tail.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	distribution	Distribution — Endemic to Príncipe Island, Republic of São Tomé & Príncipe, West Africa.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF86DD0967D521F03A6307B7.taxon	biology_ecology	Habitat and Natural History notes — Similar to the São Tomé form, Panaspis africana occurs in under the fallen leaves of the primary and secondary forests of Príncipe Island. It can sometimes be found at the limits of the forests, in more opened areas. The species is very abundant in areas with leaf litter. These skinks are usually more active during the mornings (until 14: 00) and the maximum known altitudinal occurrence is at 528 m, on Pico Papagaio (specimen MB 03 - 001035). There are no explicit dietary data for the species, but specimens have been seen consuming small arthropods (LMPC pers. obs.). Two of the collected or observed specimens had a bifurcated tail (Fig. 6).	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF98DD0B67D524A53AB70625.taxon	description	(Fig. 7)	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF98DD0B67D524A53AB70625.taxon	description	Similar to all other Annobon endemics, little is known about P. annobonensis. Because of the isolation of the island and difficulty of access, few specimens of this species exist in collections. The first record of this species, at the time considered by Bocage (1903) as conspecific to africana, was collected in the late 1880 s by Francisco Newton, whose specimens were then deposited in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Lisbon. These specimens were lost in the fire that destroyed the collections of Museu Bocage in 1978. Some years later, during his expedition to the Gulf of Guinea and West Coast of Africa, Leonardo Fea collected additional specimens, also classified by Boulenger (1906) as africana, which were deposited in both the British Museum of Natural History (England) and the Museo Civico di Istoria Naturale di Genova (Italy). Alfred Stauch in 1963 and Roger Taufflieb in 1964 collected 21 and 5 specimens, respectively, of annobonensis, which they deposited in the collections of the Muséum national d ’ Histoire Naturelle in Paris (France), and were later used by Fuhn (1972) to describe the subspecies (plus two specimens from Fea collection, housed in the British Museum). More recently, a team from the University of Madeira, led by D. J. Harris, visited the island in 2002 (Jesus et al. 2003) and collected several specimens n = 12), currently housed in the collections of MUHNAC. P. annobonensis belongs to the same clade as P. africana and P. cabindae, and are both sister to other Panaspis from central, eastern and southern Africa (Medina et al. 2016). This explains the morphological similarity between the species. According to the original description (Fuhn 1972), the main characters that distinguish P. annobonensis from africana sensu lato (including P. thomensis) are its longer limbs, which touch each other when adpressed along the midbody, an higher number of subdigital lamellae under the fourth finger and fourth toe, the presence of a large first loreal scale, darker coloration, a well marked dark subocular band, and a black speckled throat speckled. In the majority of the specimens of the type series (16 out of 26) the frontonasals are not in contact, whereas in a smaller number the frontonasals are in contact at a single point. Given its rarity and the lack of data regarding the species, we present here a diagnosis to the species and data concerning the specimens currently deposited in MUHNAC collections. P. annobonensis are small to medium-sized skinks (SVL 28 – 37.3 mm) with a robust smoothly tapered tail. Head wide and not much acuminate (HW / HL 60 %), approximately 20 % of SVL. Prefrontals separated or in contact. Supraciliaries separated or in contact, usually 5 and rarely 6; 4 supralabials anterior to subocular; wide subocular in direct contact with the lip and not reduced basally by the intrusion of adjacent supralabials. Midbody scale rows 24 – 27, paravertebral scales 52 – 59, and paraventral scales 25 – 40. Lamellae beneath the fourth finger 9 – 12, beneath the fourth toe 13 – 17. All examined specimens have faded colouration resulting from preservation, although some patterns are visible in all specimens, such as a well-marked dark subocular band and a black speckled throat. General colouration is orange-brown, with dorsal surfaces of the head being much more homogeneous than the other two species. A distinctive dark dorsolateral band starts near the tympanum and runs along the entire dorsum to the anterior half of the tail, with some irregular dark-brown lines in the dorsum, between the two dorsolateral bands.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF98DD0B67D524A53AB70625.taxon	distribution	Distribution — Endemic to Annobon Island, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
03CD1E1DFF98DD0B67D524A53AB70625.taxon	biology_ecology	Habitat and natural history notes — According to Jesus et al. (2003), the species has a restricted distribution in the island, usually found among leaf litter in the forest, and very rarely in dry places or near the coast. However, according to the authors, the species is abundant and present in relatively high densities in the areas where it occurs.	en	Soares, Leonor B., P, Luis M., Ceríaco, Marques, Mariana P., Bastos-, Cristiane, Silveira, Scheinberg, Lauren A., James, D., Harris, and, António Brehm, Jesus, José (2018): Review of the leaf-litter skinks (Scincidae: Panaspis) from the Gulf of Guinea Oceanic Islands, with the description of a new species. African Journal of Herpetology 67 (2): 132-159, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015, URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2017.1413015
