Lerista chalybura STORR, 1985
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Lerista chalybura
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| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Sphenomorphinae (Sphenomorphini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Pilbara Blue-tailed Slider |
| Synonym | Lerista chalybura STORR 1985 Lerista zietzi WELLS & WELLINGTON 1985 Lerista chalybura — SHEA 1999: 38 Lerista zietzi — STORR et al. 1999 Lerista chalybura — COGGER 2000: 515 Lerista zietzi — AMEY et al. 2005 Tychismia zietzi — WELLS 2012: 266 Lerista zietzi — WILSON & SWAN 2010 Lerista chalybura — ELLIS & KNUCKEY 2022 |
| Distribution | Australia (Western Australia) chalybura: Australia (Western Australia); Type locality: Weeli Wolli Spring, WA [22°55'S 119°12'E]. zietzi: Type locality: 9 miles S Wittenoom, WA. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: WAM R73934; Paratype: AM (chalybura) Holotype: WAM R37078 [zietzi] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: “‘A small slender Lerista with four fingers, four toes, movable eyelids, large ear aperture (about twice as large as nostril), comparatively long foreleg (more than 6 mm long in adults and subadults), greyish or bluish tail, and narrow, inferiorly ill-defined, dark upper lateral stripe.” (Storr 1985, based on 22 specimens) |
| Comment | Synonymy: WELLS 2012: 266 lists L. chalybura as a synonym of Tychismia (= Lerista) zietzi. Lerista chalybura has been considered “a junior synonym of Lerista zietzi Wells & Wellington, 1985, the holotype of which is a paratype of L. chalybura. The nominal date of publication of L. zietzi is 1.iii.1985, although we have been unable to identify a copy of the publication received before 19.ix.1985, when J. Covacevich (pers. comm.) sighted one. The first copy sighted by G. Shea was sold to him by R. Wellington on 27.ix.1985. The nominal date of publication of L. chalybura is 30.viii.1985. Recent authors appear to consider L. chalybura to have priority (SHEA & SADLIER 1999). Not listed by COGGER 2014. Richard Wells and Ross Wellington proposed the name Lerista zietzi for the same population (Wells and Wellington 1985). The diagnosis presented by Wells and Wellington (1985) for L. zietzi essentially summarises features of three specimens detailed by Storr (1971) under geographic variation for L. frosti, to which the species was assigned. The two proposed new taxa are synonymous, particularly as the descriptions by Storr (1985) and Wells and Wellington (1985) share the same diagnostic information and some type material: the holotype of L. zietzi (WAM R37078; Figure 2), the only specimen mentioned by Wells and Wellington, is also a paratype for L. chalybura. [...] Based on the printed publication dates of the journal issues in which Storr (1985) and Wells and Wellington (1985) occurred, the Wells and Wellington name Lerista zietzi takes precedence over Storr’s Lerista chalybura, rendering L. chalybura a junior synonym of L. zietzi (Ellis & Knuckey 2022). |
| Etymology | From the Greek chalybos (steel, in this case in reference to the color steel blue), plus oura (tail) in reference to the blue tail. (G. Shea, pers. comm., 9 Feb 2024) |
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