Teratoscincus rustamowi SZCZERBAK, 1979
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Teratoscincus rustamowi
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| Higher Taxa | Sphaerodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Teratoscincus scincus rustamowi SZCZERBAK 1979: 137 Teratoscincus scincus rustamowi — KLUGE 1993 Teratoscincus scincus rustamowi — SZCZERBAK & GOLUBEV 1996: 38 Teratoscincus rustamowi — DE LISLE et al. 2013: 263 Teratoscincus rustamowi — NAZAROV et al. 2017 Teratoscincus scincus rustamowi — BONDARENKO 2020 |
| Distribution | Uzbekistan (Fergana Valley, the deserts of the former USSR]; Type locality: Uzbekistan, Ferghana Valley, central Ferghana [Fergana] sand dunes, between Quqand and Djumashuyi. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: NMNHU (formerly ZIK) Re No. 9, collected on June 8, 1976, by N. N. Shcherbak (= Szczerbak), M. N. Golubev and E. M. Pisanets |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (rustamowi): Medium-sized gecko with SVLmax up to 81 mm (less than SVLmax of T. scincus sensu stricto — 90.2 mm). Dorsal surface of body covered by rows of enlarged imbricate juxtaposed scales, in 26 – 36 longitudinal rows around the midbody and 32 – 41 transverse rows counted along the body. Enlarged scales reach occipital region. Head large and well-defined from body, covered by small granular scales. Nostril in contact with rostral, enlarged supranasal, two large nasals and first supralabial. Usually no additional subnasal scales between supralabial and naris; if such supernumerary scales present their diameter less or equal to half of naris diameter (vs. additional subnasal scales always present, their diameter about the same size as naris in T. scincus sensu stricto). Fingers and toes with fringed edges formed by large elongated triangle scales. Claws strongly compressed laterally. Small imbricate scales covering the lower surface of digits, with only a few transversely widened scales at the distal part of fingers and toes. Ventral scales of approximately the same size as dorsals. No precloacal and femoral pores. Moderate hemipenial swellings; single precloacal spur on the each side at the tail basis. Tail rounded in cross section (SVLGTailL ratio about 1.55 in T. rustamowi vs. 1.4 for T. scincus sensu stricto), tail dorsal surface covered by 11 – 18 enlarged nail-shaped scales. We failed to find any significant differences between males and females of T. rustamowi in all examined metric and meristic characters (vs. pronounced sexual dimorphism revealed for the several morphological characters in T. scincus sensu stricto: HES; OrbD; LS; FemurL; LD4A; LD4P and SVLGHES ratio) [from Nazarov et al. 2017] Comparisons with other congeners. T. rustamowi can be distinguished from T. scincus sensu stricto by the following combination of morphological attributes: smaller body size (SVLmax up to 81 mm in T. rustamowi vs. SVLmax up to 87.1 mm in T. scincus sensu stricto); smaller ventral scale number (SLB 36 ± 1.82 in T. rustamowi vs. SLB 34 ± 2.26 in T. scincus sensu stricto); fewer scales between eyes (SEH 32 ± 1.9 in T. rustamowi vs. 36.5 ± 5.0 in T. scincus sensu stricto); greater number of elongated triangle scales on the fringes of 4th finger (FFr4 20 ± 1.27 and FFl4 21 ± 1.56 in T. rustamowi vs. FFr4 18 ± 1.48 and FFl4 20 ± 1.69 in T. scincus sensu stricto); smaller number of supralabials and infralabials (SL 10±0.7, IL 10±0.88 in T. rustamowi vs. SL 11± 0.87, IL 11 ± 1.07 in T. scincus sensu stricto); smaller number of enlarged nail-shaped scales on the dorsal surface of tail (NP 15 ± 1.5 in T. rustamowi vs. 16 ± 1.2 in T. scincus sensu stricto). Moreover, we found significant differences in body and limb proportions between the examined populations of T. scincus sensu stricto and T. rustamowi (Table 4). T. rustamowi have significantly shorter tail (SVLGTailL 1.51±0.4 vs. 1.39±0.1, p=0.001), more elongated body (SVLGTrunkL 2.07 ± 0.4 vs. 2.11 ± 0.1, p = 0.01), comparatively more elongated and narrow head (HeadLGHeadW 1.33 ± 0.3 vs. 1.24 ± 0.1, p = = 0.000006), bigger eyes (SVLGOrbD 14.5 ± 3.3 vs. 16.8 ± 1, p = 0.0001), shorter rostrum (HeadLGSnEye 3.03 ± 0.6 vs. 2.9 ± 0.1, p = 0.01), shorter occipital region (HeadLGEyeEar 3.57 ± 0.7 vs. 3.17 ± 0.2, p = =0.00002), and longer limbs (SVLGLS 6.6±1.4 vs. 6.9 ± 0.3, p = 0.01; SVLGCrusL 6.2 ± 1.3 vs. 6.7 ± 0.4, p = 0.001; SVLGFemurL 5.5 ± 1.2 vs. 5.9 ± 0.3, p = = 0.000008) than T. scincus sensu stricto. From the other species of Teratoscincus, T. rustamowi can be distinguished by the following morphological characters: ••• From Teratoscincus bedriagai by larger body size (SVLmax up to 81 mm in T. rustamowi vs. SVLmax up to 73.4 mm in T. bedriagai); less scales around the body (SAB 26 – 36 in T. rustamowi vs. SAB 34 – 42 in T. bedriagai); and two to three pairs of enlarged postmentals in T. rustamowi (vs. no enlarged postmentals in T. bedriagai). Dorsal enlarged imbricate scales reach occipital region in T. rustamowi vs. dorsal enlarged scales extend anteriorly as far as the level of forelimbs in T. bedriagai. Adults have markedly different dorsal patterns (Fig. 9b, g ). ••• From Teratoscincus keyserlingii sensu stricto by smaller body size (SVLmax up to 81 mm in T. rustamowi vs. SVLmax up to 116.5 mm in T. keyserlingii sensu stricto); less scales around the body (SAB 26–36 in T. rustamowi vs. SAB 29–39 in T. keyserlingii sensu stricto); transversal dorsal patterns in T. rustamowi vs. longitudinal dorsal patterns in T. keyserlingii sensu stricto; grayish dorsal coloration in T. rustamowi vs. reddish dorsal coloration in T. keyserlingii sensu stricto (Fig. 10b, c). ••• FromTeratoscincusprzewalskiibysmallerbodysize (SVLmax up to 81 mm in T. rustamowi vs. SVLmax up to 93 mm in T. przewalskii); dorsal enlarged imbricate scales reaching occipital region in T. rustamowi vs. dorsal enlarged scales reach as far as the level of forelimb in T. przewalskii; less scales around the body (SAB 26 – 36 in T. rustamowi vs. SAB 31 – 38 in T. przewalskii); and different coloration (Fig. 9b, e). ••• From Teratoscincus roborowskii by higher number of scales around the body (SAB 26 – 36 in T. rustamowi vs. SAB 24 – 30 in T. roborowskii); and by different dorsal patterns (Fig. 10b, f ). ••• From Teratoscincus mesriensis sp. nov. by smaller body size (SVLmax up to 81 mm in T. rustamowi vs. SVLmax up to 93.6 mm in Teratoscincus mesriensis sp. nov.), dorsal enlarged scales reaching occipital region in T. rustamowi vs. dorsal enlarged scales extend anteriorly as far as the level of forelimb insertion in Teratoscincus mesriensis sp. nov.; less scales around the body (SAB 26 – 36 in T. rustamowi vs. SAB 35 – 42 in Teratoscincus mesriensis sp. nov.); and different dorsal patterns (Fig. 9b, d ). ••• From Teratoscincus microlepis by presence of enlarged rounded imbricate dorsal scales in T. rustamowi vs. small homogenous granular scales in T. microlepis; and also by different coloration (Fig. 9b, h ). Dorsal patterns and body habitus of all known members of the genus Teratoscincus are summarized in Fig. 9 in Nazarov et al. 2017. |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | Named after “famous [Russian ?] zoologist A.K. Rustamov.” |
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