| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Mabuyinae (Mabuyini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Virgin Islands Bronze Skink |
| Synonym | Scincus sloanii DAUDIN 1803: 287
Scincus sloanei — MERREM 1820: 70
Spondylurus sloanei — FITZINGER 1826: 23
Tiliqua sloanii — GRAY 1831: 70
Scincus richardi — COCTEAU 1837
Tiliqua richardi — GRAY 1838: 292
Tiliqua sloanii — GRAY 1838: 293
Eumeces sloanii — DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1839: 639
Mabouya sloanei — GRAY 1845: 94
Mabuia cuprescens — COPE 1862: 186
E[uprepes] semitaeniatus — PETERS 1871: 400 (part).
Mabuya sloanii — BOCOURT 1879: 401 (part)
Mabuia sloanii — GARMAN 1887
Mabuia nitida — GARMAN 1887: 51 (part)
Mabuia sloanii — BOULENGER 1887: 193 (part)
Mabuia sloanii — MEERWARTH 1901: 37
Mabuya sloanii — STEJNEGER 1904: 608 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — BARBOUR 1914: 320 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — SCHMIDT 1928: 121 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — BARBOUR 1930: 105 (part)
Mabuya mabouia — BARBOUR 1935: 129 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanii — DUNN 1936: 544 (part)
Mabuya mabouia — BARBOUR 1937: 147 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — GRANT 1937: 517 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanei — SCHWARTZ & THOMAS 1975: 141 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanei — MACLEAN et al. 1977: 30–34 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanei — HEATWOLE et al. 1981: 34 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanii — BRYGOO 1985: 101 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanei — SCHWARTZ & HENDERSON 1988: 151 (part)
Mabuya mabouya sloanei — SCHWARTZ & HENDERSON 1991: 457 (part)
Mabuya bistriata — POWELL et al. 1996: 82 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — MAYER & LAZELL 2000: 883 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — MIRALLES 2005: 49 (part)
Mabuya sloanii — HENDERSON & POWELL 2009: 293 (part)
Spondylurus sloanii — HEDGES & CONN 2012: 201 |
| Distribution | British Virgin Islands (Little Tobago, Norman Island, Peter Island, and Salt Island); U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas and its islets of Capella Island, Little Buck Island, Little Saba Island, and Water Island)
Type locality: not given; Duméril & Bibron, 1839:639 restricted the type locality to “Saint-Thomas”.
cuprescens: St. Thomas
|
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Holotype: MNHN-RA 0554; Duméril & Bibron, 1839:639 redescribed the holotype of Scincus sloanii Daudin, collected by "Richard père" = Louis Claude Richard, probably in 1781–89. Also listed as holotype in MCZ catalogue #170884.
Holotype: apparently lost [cuprescens] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Spondylurus sloanii is characterized by (1) maximum SVL in males, 71.6 mm; (2) maximum SVL in females, 88.9 mm; (3) snout width, 2.10–3.11% SVL; (4) head length, 15.2–19.2% SVL; (5) head width, 11.8– 13.9% SVL; (6) ear length, 1.12–1.73% SVL; (7) toe-IV length, 8.05–11.2% SVL; (8) prefrontals, two (95%), four (5%); (9) supraoculars, three (2%), four (98%); (10) supraciliaries, three (5%), four (95%); (11) frontoparietals, two; (12) supralabial below the eye, five (18%), six (77%), seven (5%); (13) nuchal rows, one (15%), two (75%), three (10%); (14) dorsals, 59–64; (15) ventrals, 58–68; (16) dorsals + ventrals, 118–131; (17) midbody scale rows, 32–34; (18) finger-IV lamellae, 10–13; (19) toe-IV lamellae, 14–17; (20) finger-IV + toe-IV lamellae, 24–30; (21) supranasal contact, Y (95%), N (5%); (22) prefrontal contact, Y (33%), N (67%, although nearly all in near contact); (23) supraocular-1/frontal contact, Y (38%), N (62%); (24) parietal contact, Y (95%), N (5%); (25) pale middorsal stripe, Y; (26) dark dorsolateral stripe, Y; (27) dark lateral stripe, Y; (28) pale lateral stripe, N (or weak); and (29) palms and soles, pale (Tables 3–5). |
| Comment | Synonymy: after HEDGES & CONN 2012: 201. Cocteau, 1837 was mentioned in Gray [1839:292] and in Duméril and Bibron [1839:639] but only two brief extracts were published by Cocteau [1837a,b]; apparently the full manuscript, with names, was never published. See also discussion in HEDGES & CONN 2012: 206. Pinto-Sánchez et al. 2015 synonymized culebrae, macleani, and monitae with Spondylurus sloani.
Distribution: erroneously reported from Jamaica (Garman, 1887; following Gray 1845).
Conservation status: endangered (Adkins-Giese et al. 2014).
Type species: Scincus sloanii DAUDIN 1803: 287 is the type species of the genus Spondylurus FITZINGER 1826.
Reference images: see Uetz et al. 2024 for high-resolution reference images for this species. |
| Etymology | The species (sloanii) was named in honor of Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a British physician who studied the natural history of the West Indies, describing a skink from Jamaica which Daudin (1803) believed to be the same species as the specimen he described from St. Thomas. |
| References |
- Adkins-Giese, C.L., Curry, T., Platenberg, R. 2014. PETITION TO LIST NINE SPECIES OF CARIBBEAN SKINKS AS ENDANGERED UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT. CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, 61 pp. - get paper here
- Barbour, T. 1935. A second list of Antillean reptiles and amphibians. Zoologica 19 (3): 77-141 - get paper here
- Barbour, Thomas 1914. A Contribution to the Zoögeography of the West Indies, with Especial Reference to Amphibians and Reptiles. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy 44 (2): 205-359 - get paper here
- Barbour, Thomas 1930. Some faunistic changes in the Lesser Antilles. Proc. New England Zool. Club 11: 73-85
- Barbour, Thomas 1930. A list of Antillean Reptiles and Amphibians. Zoologica 11 (4): 61-116 - get paper here
- Barbour,T. and B. Shreve 1937. Novitates Cubanae. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 80: 377-387 - get paper here
- Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
- Bocourt, M. F. 1879. Etudes sur les reptiles, p. i-xiv, 1-1012. In Recherches Zoologiques pour servir a l'Histoire de Ia Faune de l'Amérique Centrale et du Mexique. Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, Recherches zoologiques. Part 2, sect. 1; In A. Duméril, M. F. Bocourt, and F. Mocquard, (1870-1909). Imprimerie Impériale, Paris [3, Pt. 6], pp. 360–440. - 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
- Cocteau, J.-T. and G. Bibron 1838. Reptiles, in R. de la Sagra. Historia Física, Política y Natural de la Isla de Cuba, Tomo IV. Arthus Bertrand, Paris, 142 pp. [1838-1843 - index on page 143; but note that BHL has 1840 on the cover page of vol. IV] - get paper here
- Cope, E.D. 1863. Contributions to Neotropical saurology. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 14 [1862]: 176-188. - get paper here
- Daudin, F. M. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière des Reptiles, Vol. 4. F. Dufart, Paris, 397 pp. - get paper here
- Duméril, A. M. C. and G. Bibron. 1839. Erpétologie Générale on Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles. Vol. 5. Roret/Fain et Thunot, Paris, 871 pp. - get paper here
- Dunn, Emmett Reid 1935. Notes on American Mabuyas. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 87: 533-560 - get paper here
- Fitzinger, L. 1826. Neue Classification der Reptilien nach ihren natürlichen Verwandtschaften nebst einer Verwandschafts-Tafel und einem Verzeichnisse der Reptilien-Sammlung des K. K. Zoologischen Museums zu Wien. J. G. Heubner, Wien, 66 pp. - get paper here
- Fowler, H. W. 1918. Some amphibians and reptiles from Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Publ. Carnegie Inst. Washington, 252: 1-16.
- Garman, S. 1887. On West Indian Reptiles. Scincidae. Bull. Essex Inst. 19: 51-53 - get paper here
- Grant, C. 1937. Herpetological notes with new species from the American and British Virgin Islands, 1936. J. Dept. Agric. Puerto Rico 21: 503-522.
- Gray, J. E. 1831. A synopsis of the species of Class Reptilia. In: Griffith, E & E. Pidgeon: The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organisation by the Baron Cuvier with additional descriptions of all the species hither named, and of many before noticed [Vol. 9]. Whittaker, Treacher and Co., London: 481 + 110 pp. [1830] - get paper here
- Gray, J. E. 1845. Catalogue of the specimens of lizards in the collection of the British Museum. Trustees of die British Museum/Edward Newman, London: xxvii + 289 pp. - get paper here
- Hedges, S.B. & Conn, C.E. 2012. A new skink fauna from Caribbean islands (Squamata, Mabuyidae, Mabuyinae). Zootaxa 3288: 1–244 - get paper here
- Mayer, G.C. & Lazell, J. 2000. A new species of Mabuya (Sauria: Scincidae) from the British Virgin Islands. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 113 (4): 871-886 - get paper here
- Miralles, A. 2005. The identity of Lacertus mabouya LACÉPÈDE 1788, with description of a neotype: an approach toward the taxonomy of new world Mabuya. Herpetologica 61 (1): 46-53 - get paper here
- Pinto-Sánchez, Nelsy Rocío; Martha L. Calderón-Espinosa, Aurelien Miralles, Andrew J. Crawford, Martha Patricia Ramírez-Pinilla 2015. Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Neotropical skink genus Mabuya Fitzinger (Squamata: Scincidae) with emphasis on Colombian populations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.07.016 - get paper here
- Schwartz, A. & Henderson, R.W. 1988. West Indian Amphibian and Reptiles: A Checklist. Milwaukee Publ. Mus. Contr. Biol. Geol. No. 74: 264 pp. - get paper here
- Schwartz, A. & Henderson, R.W. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 720 pp.
- Schwartz, A. and R. Thomas. 1975. A checklist of West Indian amphibians and reptiles. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ. 1:1-216. - get paper here
- Stejneger, L. 1904. The herpetology of Porto Rico. Rept. United States Natl. Mus. 1902: 549-724. - get paper here
- 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
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