Agama aculeata distanti

Agama cf. aculeata distanti Boulenger, 1902

Specimen.

Mozambique: Lourenço Marques: BMNH 1896.6.9.1 .

Comments.

In May 1896, Bocage (1896 a) recorded four specimens collected by Francisco Joaquim Dias Quintas (1851 – date of death unknown) in Lourenço Marques (currently Maputo) as “ Agama sp. ? ”. In the same year, in preparation for a work on the ground agamas of Angola (Bocage 1896 b), he wrote to Boulenger to exchange specimens and opinions (NHMA /DF/ZOO/235/1/1/1/76). In a letter dated 2 June 1896 Bocage discussed a shipment of Agama spp. to the British Museum, including a juvenile specimen from Mozambique (No. 3) that he tentatively identified as “ Agama hispida ? ”. The specimen was accessioned as Agama hispida with the number BMNH 1896.6.9.1 and a correction on the jar label indicates it was later reidentified as Agama armata . It was cited as Agama hispida var. armata by Boulenger and Power (1921). We provisionally treat the specimen as Agama cf. aculeata distanti based on geographic distribution and a striped gular pattern following Jacobsen (1992), although the status of the Agama aculeata complex requires further work to establish geographic and specific delimitations (Leaché et al. 2014).