Mesoscincus

Mesoscincus[1] is a genus of lizards, comprising three species of skinks native to Mexico and Central America. The species were formerly included in the genus Eumeces.

Mesoscincus
Mesoscincus schwartzei
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Scincidae
Subfamily:	Scincinae
Genus:	Mesoscincus Griffith, Ngo & Murphy, 2000

Species

• Mesoscincus altamirani (Dugès, 1891) – Tepalcatepec skink – Mexico
• Mesoscincus managuae (Dunn, 1933) – Managua skink – Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala [2] and El Salvador
• Mesoscincus schwartzei (Fischer, 1884) – Schwartze's skink – Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Mesoscincus.

Etymology

The specific name, altamirani, is in honor of Federico Altamirano who collected the holotype.[3]

The specific name, schwartzei, is in honor of "Dr. E. W. E. Schwartze" who was associated with the zoo in Hamburg, Germany.[3] This probably refers to Erich Wilhelm Edmund Schwartze (1810–1885).

References

1. Genus Mesoscincus at The Reptile Database.
2. Ariano-Sánchez, Daniel; Urbina, Antonio; Salazar, Gilberto (2010). "Geographic distribution: Mesoscincus managuae (Managua skink)". Herpetological Review 41 (1): 107.
3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Mesoscincus altamirani, p. 6; Mesoscincus schwartzei, p. 239).

Further reading

• Griffith, Hugh; Ngo, André; Murphy, Robert W. (2000). "A Cladistic Evaluation of the Cosmopolitan Genus Eumeces Wiegmann (Reptilia, Squamata, Scincidae)". Russian Journal of Herpetology 7 (1): 1-16. (Mesoscincus, new genus).