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Silvascincus murrayi (BOULENGER, 1887)

IUCN Red List - Silvascincus murrayi - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaScincidae, Sphenomorphinae (Sphenomorphini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Blue-speckled Forest-skink 
SynonymLygosoma murrayi BOULENGER 1887: 232
Lygosoma tamburinense LÖNNBERG & ANDERSSON 1915: 5
Lygosoma (Hinulia) tenuis intermedius KINGHORN 1932
Sphenomorphus murrayi — COGGER 1983: 185
Concinnia murrayi — WELLS & WELLINGTON 1983
Eulamprus murrayi — COGGER 2000: 486
Karma murrayi — WELLS 2009
Eulamprus murrayi — WILSON & SWAN 2010
Eulamprus murrayi — WILSON & SWAN 2013
Silvascincus murrayi — SKINNER et al. 2013
Concinnia murrayi — COGGER 2014: 454
Karma murrayi — COGGER 2014: 978 (addendum)
Karma murrayi — SWAN et al 2017
Karma murrayi — SHEA 2019 
DistributionAustralia (New South Wales, Queensland)

Type locality: Qld.  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: BMNH 1946.8.21.32
Holotype: NFIRM 3212, from Mt. Tambourine, Qld. [Lygosoma tamburinense]
Holotype: QM J3023, from Macpherson Ranges, 3000 ft, S Qld. [tryoni]
Holotype: AM R6485, from Richmond River, N. S. W. [L. tenuis intermedius] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): Australian Sphenomorphus group scincids displaying the following combination of derived character states: third pairof enlarged chin scales separated by 5 (instead of 3) scale rows, visceral fat bodies absent, postmental contacts a single infralabial,pale to bright yellow ventral colouration (see Greer, 1989; Sadlier,1998).


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CommentSynonymy partly after COGGER 1983. Lygosoma (Hinulia) tryoni LONGMAN 1918 hs been removed from the synonym of E. murrayi and reinstated to species status.

Type species: Lygosoma murrayi Boulenger, 1987 is the type species of the genus Silvascincus SKINNER et al. 2013.

Phylogenetics: see Singhal et al. 2017 and 2018 for a phylogeny of Australian sphenomorphine skinks.

Limb morphology: 5 digits, 5 toes (Singhal et al. 2018, Brandley et al 2008)

Morphology: Hutchinson et al. 2021 present a table of morphological character states across 20 Australian sphenomorphine skinks, including this genus.

Reference images: see Uetz et al. 2024 for high-resolution reference images for this species. 
EtymologyNamed after Sir John Murray (1841-1914), a Canadian marine naturalist and oceanographer.

The genus was named after the Latin silva, forest, and neo-Latin Scincus, a skink. The name refers to the forest habitat occupied bythese skinks.  
References
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G. A. 1887. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) III. Lacertidae, Gerrhosauridae, Scincidae, Anelytropsidae, Dibamidae, Chamaeleontidae. London: 575 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H. G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 7th ed. CSIRO Publishing, xxx + 1033 pp. - get paper here
  • Cogger, H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.
  • Couper, P., Covacevich, J., Amey, A. & Baker, A. 2006. The genera of skinks (Family Scincidae) of Australia and its island territories: diversity, distribution and identification. in: Merrick, J.R., Archer, M., Hickey, G.M. & Lee, M.S.Y. (eds.). Evolution and Zoogeography of Australasian Vertebrates. Australian Scientific Publishing, Sydney, pp. 367-384
  • Hutchinson, M. N., Couper, P., Amey, A., & Worthington-Wilmer, J. 2021. Diversity and Systematics of Limbless Skinks (Anomalopus) from Eastern Australia and the Skeletal Changes that Accompany the Substrate Swimming Body Form. Journal of Herpetology 55 (4): 361-384 - get paper here
  • Kinghorn, J. R. 1932. Herpetological notes 4. Rec. Austral. Mus. 18: 335-363 - get paper here
  • Lönnberg, E. & Andersson, G. L. 1915. Results of Dr. E. Mjöberg's Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-1913. VII. Reptiles collected in northern Queensland. Kungl. Svenska Vetensk. -Akad. Hand]. 52 (7): 1-9 - get paper here
  • Reeder, T.W. 2003. A phylogeny of the Australian Sphenomorphus group (Scincidae: Squamata) and the phylogenetic placement of the crocodile skinks (Tribolonotus): Bayesian approaches to assessing congruence and obtaining confidence in maximum likelihood inferred relationships. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 27: 384–397 - get paper here
  • Shea, G.M. 2019. Current status of the genera Karma and Magmellia Wells, 2009 (Scincidae: Lygosominae: Sphenomorphini) with a morphological character to distinguish the two genera. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 61: 187–191 - get paper here
  • Singhal, Sonal; Huateng Huang, Maggie R. Grundler, María R. Marchán-Rivadeneira, Iris Holmes, Pascal O. Title, Stephen C. Donnellan, and Daniel L. Rabosky 2018. Does Population Structure Predict the Rate of Speciation? A Comparative Test across Australia’s Most Diverse Vertebrate Radiation. The American Naturalist 192 (4): 432-447 - get paper here
  • Skinner, Adam; Mark N. Hutchinson, Michael S.Y. Lee 2013. Phylogeny and Divergence Times of Australian Sphenomorphus Group Skinks (Scincidae, Squamata). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69 (3): 906–918 - get paper here
  • Swan, G.; Sadlier, R.; Shea, G. 2017. A field guide to reptiles of New South Wales. Reed New Holland, 328 pp.
  • Uetz, P.H.; Patel, M.; Gbadamosi, Z.; Nguyen, A.; Shoope, S. 2024. A Reference Database of Reptile Images. Taxonomy 4: 723–732 - get paper here
  • Wells, R.W. 2009. Some taxonomic and nomenclatural considerations on the class Reptilia in Australia. A review of the genera Eulamprus and Glaphyromorphus (Scincidae), including the description of new genera and species. Australian Biodiversity Record (3): 1–96.
  • Wilson, S. & Swan, G. 2010. A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 3rd ed. Chatswood: New Holland, 558 pp.
 
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