Trinidad worm lizard

About the Trinidad worm lizard

Bachia trinitatis, commonly known as the Trinidad bachia, Trinidad worm lizard, or Trinidad hex-scaled bachia, is a species of lizard in the family Gymnophthalmidae. It is found in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. L. Fitzinger in 1826 described the species Brachypus cuvieri, which may refer to any four-toed Bachia species, and which has been suggested to be a senior synonym for Bachia trinitatis in the past. However, the holotype and type locality for cuvieri are now unknown, making it difficult to apply the name to a single species. Furthermore, a 1839 redescription of the species by André Duméril and Gabriel Bibron was based on three lectotypes belonging to three different species, leading to cuvieri generally being considered a nomen dubium or nomen nudum in the present.

Bachia trinitatis was formally described by the American herpetologist Thomas Barbour as Scolecosaurus trinitatis in 1914 on the basis of an adult specimen collected from Caparo, Trinidad. The Brazilian biologist Paulo Vanzolini moved it into the genus Bachia in 1961 and the R. Thomas further demoted it to a subspecies of Bachia alleni in 1965. Dixon in 1973 considered both alleni and trinitatis... Wikipedia →