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Issue: Vol. 4438 No. 2: 21 Jun. 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-06-21
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4438.2.6
Page range: 313–326
Abstract views: 83
PDF downloaded: 3

A new skink of the genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Scincidae) from Hon Ba Nature Reserve, southern Vietnam

Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, 03 Quang Trung St., Da Nang City, Vietnam Institute of Tropical Biology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 85 Tran Quoc Toan St., Dist. 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Indo-Myanmar Conservation, No. 1806, C14 Bac Ha Building, To Huu St, Tu Liem Dist, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Indo-Myanmar Conservation, No. 1806, C14 Bac Ha Building, To Huu St, Tu Liem Dist, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab 1, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia.
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Canada M5S 2C6.
Reptilia COI gene forest skink Sphenomorphus buenloicus Sphenomorphus yersini asymmetrical hemipenis

Abstract

A new forest skink of the genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 is described from Khanh Hoa Province, southern Vietnam based on morphological characters of four specimens and a fragment of 653 nucleotides of the gene COI. Sphenomorphus yersini sp. nov. is characterized by the following morphological characters: medium size in adults (snout-vent length up to 55 mm); tail length/snout-vent length ratio 1.81; toes reach to fingers when limbs adpressed; midbody scale rows 32–34, smooth; paravertebral scales 61–69; ventral scale rows 58–67; subcaudal scales 112; supraoculars four, rarely five; prefrontals in broad contact with one another; loreal scales two; tympanum deeply sunk; smooth lamellae beneath finger and toe IV 10–12 and 18–20 respectively; a pair of enlarged precloacal scales; hemipenis deeply forked and asymmetrical with two differently sized smooth lobes. The new species differs from its most similar congener, Sphenomorphus buenloicus Darevsky & Nguyen, 1983, by 16.4–16.7% uncorrected p-distance in COI sequences.

 

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