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Issue: Vol. 4132 No. 1: 28 Jun. 2016
Type: Article
Published: 2016-06-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4132.1.1
Page range: 1–14
Abstract views: 209
PDF downloaded: 111

Additions to Philippine Slender Skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae Complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) I: a new species from Lubang Island

Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of South Dakota, 414 East Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma, 2401 Chautauqua Avenue, Norman, OK 73072, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Father Saturnino Urios University, San Francisco St., 8600 Butuan City, Philippines.
Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Biodiversity Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma, 2401 Chautauqua Avenue, Norman, OK 73072, USA.
Reptilia biodiversity endemism fossorial limb reduction non-pentadactyl pentadactyl Philippines

Abstract

A new species of slender skink is described from the Philippines. The species is endemic to Lubang Island, and is assigned to the Brachymeles bonitae Complex based on phenotypic and genetic data. Specimens were collected from Lubang Island between 1991 and 2012, and were examined based on morphological data (qualitative traits, meristic counts, and mensural measurements). Published genetic sequence data from phylogenetic studies of the genus reveal the new species to be highly divergent from congeners. Brachymeles ligtas sp. nov. is differentiated from other members of the genus based on a number of distinct morphological features, including small body size (SVL 60.7–79.6 mm), bidactyl fore-limbs, digitless hind limbs, high number of presacral vertebrae (50), and the absence of auricular openings. Additionally, the new species has diagnostic, distinct dorsal head scale patterns. This new species becomes the only member of the genus known to occur on the deep-ocean island of Lubang.

 

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