Lobulia elegans (BOULENGER, 1897)

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Higher Taxa	Scincidae, Sphenomorphinae (Sphenomorphini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Elegant Lobulia
Synonym	Lygosoma elegans BOULENGER 1897: 8 Lygosoma elegans — GÜNTHER 1888: 169 (?) Lygosoma elegantoides — AHL (nom. nov. pro Lygosoma elegans) Lygosoma (Leiolopisma) elegans — SMITH 1937: 224 Scincella elegantoides — MITTLEMAN 1952: 24 Lobulia elegans — GREER 1974: 9 Lobulia elegans — MYS 1988: 141 Lobulia elegans — GREER et al 2005 Lobulia elegantoides — SHEA & MICHELS 2008: 738 Lobulia elegans — KRAUS 2020 Lobulia elegans — SLAVENKO et al. 2021
Distribution	Papua New Guinea (southern slope of the Owen Stanley Mts, 1340-2440 m elevation) Type locality: Mt Victoria, Owen Stanley Range, New Guinea. Type locality: Papua New Guinea; Type locality: 7500-8000 feet on Mount Wilhelm, Bismarck Range, Madang Division, New Guinea [lobulus]
Reproduction	viviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022)
Types	Holotype: BMNH 96.10.31.9, collected A.S. Anthony.
Diagnosis	Diagnosis (genus): Medium-sized (adult SVL 41.9–63.9 mm) terrestrial or semi-arboreal skinks with long limbs (forelimbs 32.9–47.6% of SVL, hindlimbs 41.6– 54.8% of SVL); lobules present on anterior edge of ear opening; two pairs of chin shields in medial contact; two supralabials posterior to subocular supralabial; chin shields abutting infralabials; lower eyelid with semi-transparent window; standard three-scale temporal region; nasal scale undivided; frontoparietals either fused or unfused; viviparous; litter size 1–4. Lobulia differs from all other genera by its much longer limbs (forelimbs 32.9–47.6% vs. 27.7–39.8% of SVL, hindlimbs 41.6–54.8% vs. 29.9–49.6% of SVL). It further differs from Prasinohaema by lacking green blood serum and tissues (Greer, 1974), a prehensile tail with a glandular tip and basally expanded subdigital lamellae. It differs from Papuascincus by having two pairs of chin shields in medial contact (vs. one), an undivided (vs. divided) nasal scale and a viviparous (vs. oviparous) reproductive mode (Slavenko et al. 2021).
Comment	Synonymy partly inferred from Loveridge 1945 who does not recognize lobulus as subspecies. Kraus 2020 removed Lygosoma (Leiolopisma) elegantoides lobulus from the synonymy of L. elegans and considered it as valid. Type species: Lygosoma elegans BOULENGER 1897 is the type species of the genus Lobulia GREER 1974. Type: not in BMNH (P. Campbell, pers. comm., 7 July 2014). Allison & Greer (1986) removed three species from Lobulia and placed them in the newly described Papuascincus, which was distinguished from Lobulia primarily on the basis of being oviparous with a pustulose surface to the egg shells, whereas Lobulia was ovoviviparous.
References	Allison A; Greer A E 1986. Egg shells with pustulate surface structures: basis for a new genus of New Guinea skinks (Lacertilia: Scincidae). Journal of Herpetology 20 (1): 116-119 - get paper here Boulenger,G.A. 1897. Descriptions of new lizards and frogs from Mount Victoria, Owen Stanley Range, New Guinea, collected by Mr A. S. Anthony. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) 19: 6-13 - get paper here Greer, A.E. 1974. The generic relationships of the scincid lizard genus Leiolopisma and its relatives. Australian Journal of Zoology 31: 1-67. - get paper here Greer, A.E.; Allison, A. & Cogger, H.G. 2005. Four new species of Lobulia (Lacertilia: Scincidae) from high altitude in New Guinea. Herpetological Monographs 19: 153-179 - get paper here Günther, A. 1888. On a collection of reptiles from China. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6) 1: 165-172 - get paper here KRAUS, FRED 2020. A new species of Lobulia (Squamata: Scincidae) from Papua New Guinea. Zootaxa 4779 (2): 201–214 - get paper here Loveridge, Arthur 1945. New scincid lizards of the genera Tropidophorus and Lygosoma from New Guinea. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 58: 47-52 - get paper here Shea, G.M.; J.P. Michels 2008. A replacement name for Sphenomorphus keiensis (Kopstein, 1926) from the southeastern Moluccas, Indonesia (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) with a redescription of the species. Zoologische Mededelingen 82: 737-747 - get paper here Slavenko, Alex, Karin Tamar, Oliver J. S. Tallowin, Fred Kraus, Allen Allison, Salvador Carranza & Shai Meiri. 2021. Revision of the montane New Guinean skink genus Lobulia (Squamata: Scincidae), with the description of four new genera and nine new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195 (1): 220–278 - get paper here Smith, M.A. 1937. A review of the genus Lygosoma (Scincidae: Reptilia) and its allies. Records of the Indian Museum 39 (3): 213-234 Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here Zweifel R G 1980. Results of the Archbold Expeditions, No. 103. Frogs and lizards from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 165 (5) : 390-434 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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