Nessia Explained

Nessia is a genus of skinks, lizards in the family Scincidae. The genus is endemic to Sri Lanka. Species in the genus Nessia are commonly known as snake skinks.

Species

The following nine species are recognized as being valid:

• Nessia bipes – two-legged nessia
• Nessia burtonii – Burton's nessia
• Nessia deraniyagalai – Deraniyagala's nessia
• Nessia didactyla – two-toed nessia
• Nessia gansi
• Nessia hickanala – Hickanala nessia
• Nessia layardi – Layard's nessia
• Nessia monodactyla – one-toed nessia
• Nessia sarasinorum – Müller's nessia

Nota bene

A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Nessia.

Further reading

• Gray JE (1839). "Catalogue of the Slender-tongued Saurians, with Descriptions of many new Genera and Species". Annals and Magazine of Natural History, First Series 2: 331–337. (Nessia, new genus, p. 336).
• Smith MA (1935). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Amphibia. Vol. II.—Sauria. London: Secretary of State for India in Council. (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 440 pp. + Plate I + 2 maps. (Genus Nessia, pp. 356–357; Nessia bipes, nomen novum, p. 359).
• Taylor EH (1950). "Ceylonese Lizards of the Family Scincidae". University of Kansas Science Bulletin 33 (2): 481–518. (Genus Nessia, pp. 508–509; Nessia deraniyagalai, new species, pp. 516–518, Figures 8A, 8B).
• Batuwita S, Edirisinghe U (2017). "Nessia gansi: a Second Three-toed Snake-Skink (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) from Sri Lanka with the Designation of a Neotype for Nessia burtonii Gray". Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle «Grigore Antipa» 60 (1): 377–388.