NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Wood-bush Legless Skink
Acontias rieppeli (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Photo of Woodbush Legless Skink uploaded from iNaturalist.
(c) Ryan van Huyssteen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The woodbush legless skink (Acontias rieppeli) is a species of legless skink. It is found in the Wolkberg mountains of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Females of the species give birth to live young. This lizard species was formerly placed in a monotypic (single species) genus as Acontophiops lineatus. Morphologically the genus shows similarities to Acontias cregoi (formerly Typhlosaurus cregoi) and a recent review placed both of these within the genus Acontias, which, as Acontias lineatus was already occupied, required a new name for this species.
Wikipedia contributors, Woodbush legless skink; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:38:07.268510+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Acontias rieppeli (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
- Name authority
- (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
- Common name
- Wood-bush Legless Skink
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Scincidae
- Genus
- Acontias
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderAutarchoglossa
- familyScincidae
- subfamilyAcontiinae
- genusAcontias
- speciesAcontias rieppeli (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Acontias. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| White-throated Legless SkinkAcontias albigularis Conradie, Busschau & Edwards, 2018 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| FitzSimon's Legless SkinkAcontias fitzsimonsi (Broadley, 1968) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Wakkerstroom Legless SkinkAcontias wakkerstroomensis Conradie, Busschau & Edwards, 2018 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Stripe-bellied Legless SkinkAcontias subtaeniatus (Broadley, 1968) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Acontias bicolor (Hewitt, 1929) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Shorthead Lance SkinkAcontias breviceps Essex, 1925 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cregoe's Legless SkinkAcontias cregoi (Boulenger, 1903) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mier Kalahari Legless SkinkAcontias gariepensis (Fitzsimons, 1941) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Slendertail Lance SkinkAcontias gracilicauda Essex, 1925 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Japp’s Burrowing SkinkAcontias jappi (Broadley, 1968) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Kalahari Burrowing SkinkAcontias kgalagadi (Lamb, Biswas & Bauer, 2010) | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coastal Dwarf Legless Skink [litoralis]Acontias lineatus Peters, 1879 | ScincidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Acontophiops lineatus Sternfeld, 1912 Sternfeld, 1912 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Acontias&species=rieppeli Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:64MST. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.