''Tetradactylus ellenbergeri'',
commonly known as Ellen's whip lizard and Ellenberger's long-tailed seps, is a
species of
lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
in the
family Gerrhosauridae
The Gerrhosauridae are a family of lizards native to Africa and Madagascar.
Habitat
Also known as plated lizards, species in the family Gerrhosauridae live in a range of habitats, from rocky crevices to sand dunes.
Description
Their form is va ...
. The species is indigenous to
Africa.
Etymology
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''ellenbergeri'', is in honor of Victor Ellenberger (1879–1972), who was an African-born Swiss missionary and naturalist.
[ Beolens, Bo, Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Tetradactylus ellenbergeri'', p. 82).]
Geographic range
''T. ellenbergeri'' is found in
Angola,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Tanzania, and
Zambia.
[ www.reptile-database.org.]
Habitat
The preferred natural
habitats of ''T. ellenbergeri'' are
savanna and
grassland.
Description
''T. ellenbergeri'' is a snake-like lizard. Its front legs are absent, and its back legs are reduced to minute spikes about 2 mm long. The tail is extremely long, more than three times the
snout-to-vent length (SVL).
[
]
Behavior
''T. ellenbergeri'' is terrestrial and diurnal.
Diet
''T. ellenbergeri'' preys
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
upon insects and other invertebrates.
Reproduction
''T. ellenbergeri'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Angel F (1922). "''Sur un Lézard d'un genre nouveau de la famille des Gerrhosauridæ''". ''Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle'' 28: 150–152. (''Paratetradactylus ellenbergeri'', new species). (in French).
* Branch, Bill (2004). ''Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 399 pp. . (''Tetradactylus ellenbergeri'', pp. 181–182).
* Spawls S, Howell K, Hinkel H, Menegon M (2018). ''Field Guide to East African Reptiles, Second Edition''. London: Bloomsbury Natural History. 624 pp. . (''Tetradactylus ellenbergeri'', p. 218).
Tetradactylus
Reptiles described in 1922
Taxa named by Fernand Angel
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