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Emoia cyanura (LESSON, 1830)

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Higher TaxaScincidae, Eugongylinae (Eugongylini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Copper-tailed Skink, White-Bellied Copper-Striped Skink 
SynonymScincus cyanurus LESSON 1830: 49
Tiliqua Lessonii COCTEAU 1836
Tiliqua Kienerii COCTEAU 1836
Gongylus (Eumeces) Lessonii DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1839: 654
Eusoma lessonii — FITZINGER 1843: 22
Lygosoma cyanurum — BOULENGER 1895: 30
Lygosoma impar WERNER 1898 (part.)
Lygosoma arundelii GARMAN 1899
Lygosoma cyanurum schauinslandi WERNER 1901
Emoia cyanura — SNYDER 1917
Lygosoma (Emoa) cyanurum — STERNFELD 1918: 407
Emoia cyanurum — TAYLOR 1922: 228
Lygosoma cyanurum — PARKER 1925
Emoia cyanura — SMITH 1937: 227
Emoia cyanura — GREER 1974: 20
Emoia pheonura INEICH 1987
Emoia pheonura — HENLE 1990
Emoia cyanura — MYS 1988: 133
Emoia cyanura — MANTHEY & GROSSMANN 1997: 262
Emoia cyanura — WHITING et al. 2003
Emoia arundelii — LIVIGNI 2013: 312
Emoia pheonura — INEICH 2016
Emoia cyanura — KAISER et al. 2020 
DistributionCommon and broadly distributed in the Pacific, occurring from the Bismarcks through the Solomons and Vanuatu eastward to and including Polynesia; Society Islands,

Indonesia (Borneo)

Fiji Islands (widespread on all islands of a hectare or more, incl. Rotuma), Western Samoa, Admirality Islands, Toga, Loh, Tegua, Hiu Islands.

New Caledonia (Loyalty Islands), Vanuatu, Solomons, Papua New Guinea (New Britain), Tonga, Wallis, Niue, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Pitcairn Islands, Kiribati, Marshalls, Carolines, Marianas, Micronesia (e.g. Mortlock Islands, Chuuk), Nauru, Guam (one specimen only, G. Rodda, pers. comm., 13 March 2016).

USA (Hawaii)

Type locality: Tahiti.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: MNHN-RA 7069A (part 2762), O-Taïti (= Tahiti), collected by Lesson & Garnot, designation by Brygoo (1985). Paralectotypes: MNHN-RA 7068, MNHN-RA 7068A-B, MNHN-RA 7069, MNHN-RA 7069A ((7 syntypes). Note that according to some authors those syntypes were mixed and they do not correspond to the original description of E. cyanura.
Holotype: MNHN 1987.1301, male [Emoia pheonura]
Syntype: MCZ 6463 [arundelii]
Syntypes: MHNN 7069, 7069 A,B, C [lessonii] 
Diagnosis 
CommentDistribution: Does not occur on mainland New Guinea and New Caledonia (BAUER & VINDUM 1990). Reported from the Philippine Islands (e.g. Taylor 1922) but apparently not there yet.

Similar species: Ineich 2011 considers only two distinct morphotypes from Vanuatu from what was previously called E. cyanura, the brown tailed morph that he (provisionally) calls E. cyanura and the blue tailed morph that he (provisionally) calls E. impar. E. cyanura has a blue tail while pheonura has a brown or brown-green tail (according to INEICH 1987).

Lectotype: In 1986, Brygoo designated MNHN 7069A as the lectotype of E. cyanura but that decision cannot be accepted since the type series, having originated from Tahiti (French Polynesia), does not include blue tailed morph specimens such as the one illustrated on Lesson’s original iconotype plate published in 1826, but only brown tailed morph specimens and some specimens of E. caeruleocauda, a species not occurring in French Polynesia (see above). Thus in 1987 Ineich recommended con- sidering that type series as invalid and the syntypes of E. cyanura as having been lost (or mixed with other specimens in MNHN collections) [Ineich 2011].

Synonymy: partly after Ineich & Zug 1991. 
References
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