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Issue: Vol. 4132 No. 1: 28 Jun. 2016
Type: Article
Published: 2016-06-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4132.1.2
Page range: 15–29
Abstract views: 170
PDF downloaded: 103

Additions to Philippine Slender Skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae Complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) II: a new species from the northern Philippines

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.
Department of Biology, University of South Dakota, 414 East Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069, 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
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
Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, 501 Life Sciences West, Stillwater, OK, 74074 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.
Herpetology Section, Zoology Division, Philippine National Museum, Rizal Park, Burgos Street, Manila, Philippines.
University of Santo Tomas, Espana Boulevard, Manila, Philippines.
Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 220 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
Biodiversity Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Reptilia Babuyan Island Group biodiversity ecological niche modeling endemism faunal region fossorial Luzon Island non-pentadactyl pentadactyl

Abstract

We describe a new digitless scincid lizard of the genus Brachymeles from northern Luzon and Camiguin Norte islands in the Philippines. This species belongs to the Brachymeles bonitae Complex, and both molecular and morphological data confirm that this species is distinct from all other congeners. Formerly considered to be a single widespread species, this group of species has been the focus of recent systematic reviews. Here we describe a new species in the B. bonitae Complex, recognized currently to constitute five species. Brachymeles ilocandia sp. nov. is the second digitless and the seventeenth non-pentadactyl species in genus. The description of this species brings the total number of species in the genus to 40, and provides new insight into unique distribution patterns of species of the northern Philippines.

 

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