Pedioplanis laticeps (Smith, 1845)

Sebastian Kirchhof, Johannes Penner, Mark-Oliver Rödel & Johannes Müller, 2017, Resolution of the types, diagnostic features, and distribution of two easily confused Sand Lizards, Pedioplanis laticeps (Smith, 1845) and P. burchelli (Duméril & Bibron, 1839) (Squamata: Lacertidae), Zootaxa 4318 (1), pp. 82-109 : 101

Comparison of P. laticeps and P. burchelli

The most informative characters to distinguish P. laticeps from P. burchelli were found to be (in combination): having 46 to 64 dorsal scale rows (64 to 80 in burchelli ) and 16 to 18 enlarged longitudinal ventral scale rows across the midbody at the median transverse ventral row (12 to 16 in burchelli ). In addition, P. laticeps usually has 3 bulging nasal scales on each side with the interior ones separated from each other (non-bulging or only slightly bulging and broadly in contact in burchelli ), five or more upper labials anterior to the subocular (mostly 4 in burchelli ), five or more pairs of chin shields (mostly 4 in burchelli ), 28–32 lamellae beneath the 4th toe (25–28 in burchelli ), and generally more and smaller granules around the supraoculars; particularly the inner row of granules around the supraoculars is always absent in burchelli .

Based on the re-description of P. laticeps and P. burchelli we conclude that BMNH 1988.512 collected as P. laticeps is in fact P. burchelli , as it has only 14 transverse ventral scale rows, 72 dorsal scale rows, only 10 granules in front of the supraoculars, only 4 chin shields. Additionally, specimen BMNH 1988.515 can be identified as Meroles knoxii as the subocular is separated from the lip by a labial scale, it has 3 scales rather than several small granules anterior to the first supraocular, and 4 chin shields of which only the first two are in contact along their entire interior edge ( Table 2 ).