The Reptiles of Angola: History, Diversity, Endemism and Hotspots

Abstract

This review summarises the current status of our knowledge of Angolan reptile diversity, and places it into a historical context of understanding and growth. It is compared and contrasted with known diversity in adjacent regions to allow insight into taxonomic status and biogeographic patterns. Over 67% of Angolan reptiles were described by the end of the nineteenth century. Studies stagnated during the twentieth century but have increased in the last decade. At least 278 reptiles are currently known, but numerous new discoveries have been made during recent surveys, and many novelties await description. Although lizard and snake diversity is currently almost equal, most new discoveries occur in lizards, particularly geckos and lacertids. Poorly known Angolan reptiles and others from adjacent regions that W. R. Branch (deceased) National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, Wild Bird Trust, Hogsback,

Angola in Outline: Physiography, Climate and Patterns of Biodiversity

“…What is equally important in biogeographic analysis is the detection of patterns of endemism and diversity at dispersed scales -such as the Angolan Escarpment Zone -described by Hall (1960a) and subsequently recognised by many workers as of great biodiversity and evolutionary importance (Huntley 1973(Huntley , 1974a(Huntley , 2017Hawkins 1993;Mills 2010;Clark et al 2011). Indeed, each taxon-based account in this volume, on plants (Goyder and Gonçalves 2019), odonata (Kipping et al 2019), lepidoptera (Mendes et al 2019), fishes (Skelton 2019), birds (Dean et al 2019), amphibians (Baptista et al 2019), reptiles (Branch et al 2019) and mammals (Beja et al 2019) draws attention to the importance of the Angolan Escarpment as a centre of endemism and speciation. Hall (1960a) explained her recognition of the importance of the Angolan Escarpment as the major speciation hotspot for birds in Angola by it: (i) creating a barrier between arid-adapted species of the coastal plains and of the miombo woodlands of the plateau, (ii) creating a steep ecological gradient, and (iii) functioning as a refuge for moist forest specialists that were isolated here during the dry periods of the glacial cycles.…”

“…The pioneering works of Welwitsch (1859); Gossweiler and Mendonça (1939) and Barbosa (1970) provided the basis for several subsequent attempts to integrate the vegetation of Angola within a regional framework (Monteiro 1970;White 1971White , 1983Werger 1978). Zoogeographic classifications (Chapin 1932;Frade 1963;Monard 1937;Hellmich 1957;Crawford-Cabral 1983) are, with some minor exceptions, compatible with the overall systems of botanists (Werger 1978;Linder et al 2012), (but see Branch et al 2019, for comments on lizards). The Africa-wide synthesis of White (1983) is particularly useful in considering Angola's floristic (and in general terms, zoological) patterns and affinities.…”

Rock island melody: A revision of the Afroedura bogerti Loveridge, 1944 group, with descriptions of four new endemic species from Angola

“…The current reptile diversity in Angola comprises about 300 species (Marques et al 2018;Branch et al 2019a; and subsequent descriptions listed below). New species are constantly being added (Conradie et al 2012(Conradie et al , 2020Stanley et al 2016;Marques et al 2019aMarques et al , b, 2020Branch et al 2019b;Ceríaco et al 2020a, b, c;Hallerman et al 2020) and more new species are expected in the country (Branch 2016;Branch and Tolley 2017;Branch et al 2017a, b;Butler et al 2019).…”

“…The Gekkonidae in Angola comprises eight genera, Afroedura (one species), Afrogecko (one species), Chondrodactylus (three species), Hemidactylus (eight species), Kolekanos (one species), Lygodactylus (five species), Pachydactylus (11 species) and Rhoptropus (seven species) (see Marques et al 2018Marques et al , 2020Branch et al 2019a;Ceríaco et al 2020a, c). A total of 15 species of geckos are considered to be endemic to the country.…”

“…A total of 15 species of geckos are considered to be endemic to the country. This includes the monotypic Kolekanos plumicaudus (Haacke, 2008), the recently re-discovered Afrogecko ansorgii (Vaz Pinto et al 2019), six species of Hemidactylus (Ceríaco et al 2020a, c), three species of Lygodactylus (Marques et al 2020), three species of Rhoptropus and Pachydactylus angolensis (Marques et al 2018;Branch et al 2019a). Afroedura bogerti is currently regarded as a near-endemic species as a specimen was also found in northern Namibia (Branch 1998;Griffin 2003).…”