Mesalina balfouri is a species of sand-dwelling lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to Socotra.
Etymology The specific name, balfouri, is in honor of Scottish botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Mesalina balfouri, p. 15).
Habitat The preferred habitats of M. balfouri are rocky areas and shrubland at altitudes of .
Reproduction M. balfouri is oviparous.
References
Further reading Blanford WT (1881). "Notes on the Lizards collected in Socotra by Prof. I. Bayley Balfour". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1881: 464–469. ("Eremias (Mesalina) balfouri ", new species, pp. 467–469, Figure 2). (in English and Latin). Bütikofer L, Sacchi R, Pupin F, Pellitteri-Rosa D, Razzetti E, Pella F, Fasola M (2013). "Sexual dimorphism and allometry of the lacertid Mesalina balfouri (Blanford, 1881), endemic to the Archipelago of Socotra (Yemen)". Herpetozoa 25 (3/4): 101–108. (in English, with an abstract in German). Razzetti E, Sindaco R, Grieco C, Pella F, Ziliani U, Pupin F, Riservato E, Pellitteri-Rosa D, Bütikofer L, Suleiman AS, Al-Aseily BA, Carugati C, Boncompagni E, Fasola M (2011). "Annotated checklist and distribution of the Socotran Archipelago Herpetofauna (Reptilia)". Zootaxa 2826: 1-44. (Mesalina balfouri, p. 14).