Species:

Nucras aurantiaca  BAUER et al., 2019

Common names:

Lambert’s Bay Sandveld Lizard

Types:

Holotype: NMB R11626 (National Museum, Bloemfontein), adult female. Collected in 2005 by farm workers and sent to Cape Nature Conservation by Kobus Engelbrecht and thence to the University of Stellenbosch. Paratype: NMB (National Museum, Bloemfontein) R11627, gravid adult female, same data as holotype.

Terra Typica:

Republic of South Africa, Western Cape Province, Lamberts Bay, Bosduifklip Restaurant (32°05’04.36”S, 18°21’26.9 E).

Relevant taxonomic literature:

• Bauer, A.M. & Childers, J.L. & Broeckhoven, C. & Mouton, P.L.N. (2019) -  A new Nucras Gray, 1838 (Squamata: Lacertidae) from the Strandveld of the Western Cape, South Africa -  Zootaxa 4560 (1): 149–163    

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  A striking new sandveld lizard of the Nucras tessellata group is described from the Lambert’s Bay Strandveld of the Western Cape Province, South Africa. It is sister to the clade N. livida + N. tessellata, and is phenetically most similar to N. tessellata, from which it differs in its more elongate body and possibly increased number of presacral vertebrae and patternless orange dorsal coloration. The form elegans, described as a species by Andrew Smith (1838), but treated as an infrasubspecific variant by Broadley (1972), also exhibits weak patterning, but is likely a regional color variant. Nucras aurantiaca sp. nov. is the ninth member of the genus found in southern Africa. Its discovery in the well-collected coastal Western Cape suggests that further herpetofaunal surveys are needed in this region, which is threatened by agricultural activity and tourism-related development.