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Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus (WIEGMANN, 1836)

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Higher TaxaScincidae, Eugongylinae (Eugongylini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
SubspeciesCryptoblepharus poecilopleurus poecilopleurus (WIEGMANN 1836)
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus paschalis GARMAN 1908 
Common NamesE: Mottled Snake-eyed Skink 
SynonymAblepharus poecilopleurus WIEGMANN 1836: 202
Ablepharus boutoni poecilopleurus — BOULENGER 1887
Ablepharus heterurus GARMAN 1901: 11 (fide MERTENS 1931)
Ablepharus boutoni poecilopleurus — MCGREGOR 1904
Ablepharus poecilopleurus — SNYDER 1917
Ablepharus boutoni poecilopleurus — MERTENS 1931: 129
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus — DRYDEN & TAYLOR 1969
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus — GREER 1974: 21
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus — MYS 1988: 131
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus — MCKEOWN 1996
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus — HORNER 2007: 155

Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus paschalis GARMAN 1908 (fide MERTENS 1931)
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus paschalis GARMAN 1908: 13
Cryptoblepharus boutoni paschalis — BARBOUR & LOVERIDGE 1929: 246
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus paschalis — HORNER 2007: 156 
DistributionWestern Samoa, French Polynesia, New Britain, New Ireland vicinity (Ambitle, Malie), Solomon Islands [McCoy 2000], Gilbert Islands, USA (Hawaii: Kahoolawe), Easter Islands, Society Islands, possibly Peru and its off-shore islands, Marquesa, Marshall, Palau, Phoenix, Pitcairn, Samoa, Society, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuamotu and Wake islands [Horner 2007 and refs therein], Cook Islands (Roratonga), Guam (G. Rodda, pers. comm., 13 March 2016),
Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan) (Hileman et al. 2020)

Type locality: see comment

paschalis: Endemic to Isla de Pascua (Easter Island),
Oceania (Valparaiso region, Chile, South America). Type locality: Easter Island, Valparaiso region.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: ZMB 1349 (“island near Pisacoma, Peru”), collected F.J.F. Meyen). Designation by Mertens, 1931 (see Bauer et al., 2003 for discussion).
Syntypes: MCZ 6995-998, MCZ 7001-003, CAS [paschalis] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): Member of the Eugongylus subgroup of the Eugongylus group of lygosomine skinks (Greer 1979). Eye covered by immovable, transparent disc, bordered by small, granular scales and usually three enlarged upper ciliary scales. Frontoparietal and interparietal shields normally fused, forming a large, roughly diamond shaped shield. Frontal short, about as long as wide. Limbs well developed, pentadactyl with long, subcylindrical digits (from HORNER 2007).


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CommentThe type locality of Ablepharus poecilopleurus WIEGMANN 1836 is “Pisacoma Island, Peru”. However, this location needs to be confirmed to prove existence in South America.

Type Species: Ablepharus poecilopleurus is the type species of the genus Cryptoblepharus WIEGMANN 1834 (fide GREER 1974).

Phylogenetics: Blom et al. 2016, 2019 analyzed the phylogeny of the genus in the context of its adaptive radiation.

Keys: Horner 2007 presents multiple keys, one each for Australian, South-west Indian Ocean, and for the Indo-Pacific region.

Reference images: see Uetz et al. 2024 for high-resolution reference images for this species. 
EtymologyNamed after Greek poikilos (ποικίλος), many-coloured, variegated, spotted + + Greek pleura (πλευρά), sides or side (of a person or animal). (Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., April 2024)

C. p. paschalis was named after the Latin for Easter (pascha/paschal) – Easter Island is known in Spanish as Isla de Pascua.

The genus was named after Greek cryptos (κρυπτός), hidden, secret + Greek blepharon (βλέφαρον), eyelid. 
References
  • Alvarez, V., Fisher, S. R., Barley, A. J., Donmoyer, K., Blom, M. P., Thomson, R. C., & Fisher, R. N. 2023. On the Origin and Current Distribution of the Oceania Snake-Eyed Skink (Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus) in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Pacific Science 77 (1): 87-101 - get paper here
  • Barbour, T. & LOVERIDGE,A. 1929. Typical reptiles and amphibians in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. [type catalogue] Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harvard 69: 205-360 - get paper here
  • Blom MPK et al. 2019. Habitat preference modulates trans-oceanic dispersal in a terrestrial vertebrate. Proc. R. Soc. B 286: 20182575 - get paper here
  • Blom MPK, Horner P, Moritz C. 2016. Convergence across a continent: adaptive diversification in a recent radiation of Australian lizards. Proc. R. Soc. B 283: 20160181 - get paper here
  • Blom, Mozes P.K. 2015. Habitat use and new locality records for Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus (Squamata: Scincidae) from French Polynesia. Herpetology Notes 8: 579-582 - get paper here
  • Buden, Donald W.; Danko Taboroši, Maria Kottermair, Andrea Jalandoni & Matthew Martin 2020. Reptiles of the Northern Marshall Islands. Pacific Science 74 (2): 189-209 - get paper here
  • Crombie, R.I., & Steadman, D.W. 1987. The lizards of Rarotonga and Mangaia, Cook Island group, Oceania. Pacific Science 40 (1-4): 44-57.
  • Demangel, Diego 2016. Reptiles en Chile. Fauna Nativa Ediciones, Santiago, 619 pp - get paper here
  • Dryden, G.L. & TAYLOR, E.H. 1969. Reptiles from the Mariana and Caroline Islands. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 48 (8): 269-279 - get paper here
  • Garman, S. 1901. Some reptiles and batrachians from Australasia. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 39: 1-14 - get paper here
  • Garman, Samuel 1908. The Reptiles of Easter Island. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 52 (1): 3-13 (+1 plate) - get paper here
  • Gill B J. 1993. The Land Reptiles of Western Samoa. Journal of the Royal Society Of New Zealand 23 (2): 79-89. - get paper here
  • Goldberg, Stephen R. and Fred Kraus 2011. Notes on Reproduction of Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus (Squamata: Scincidae) from the Northern Mariana Islands, Western Pacific. Current Herpetology Dec 2011, Vol. 30, No. 2: 159-161. - 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
  • Hathaway, S. A., Jacobi, J. D., Peck, R., Backlin, A. R., Hitchcock, C. J., & Fisher, R. N. 2025. Biodiversity surveys of Wake Atoll—Featuring field guides for plants, arthropods, and herpetofauna. US Geological Survey (No. 2023-1066) - get paper here
  • Havery, Sarah; Steffen Oppel, Nik Cole, and Neil Duffield 2018. Density of Three Skink Species on a Sub-tropical Pacific Island Estimated with Hierarchical Distance Sampling. Herp. Cons. Biol. 13 (3): 507–516 - get paper here
  • Henle,K. 1990. Beobachtungen an Reptilien auf den Gesellschaftsinseln. Salamandra 26 (1): 45-49 - get paper here
  • Hileman, Eric T.; Bradley A. Eichelberger, Jill Liske-Clark, Patrick D. Barnhart, Robert N. Reed, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Melia G. Nafus 2020. Landscape dominance of introduced herpetofauna on an oceanic island. Global Ecology and Conservation - get paper here
  • Horner, P. 2007. Systematics of the snake-eyed skinks, Cryptoblepharus Wiegmann (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) - an Australian based review. The Beagle Supplement 3: 21-198
  • Ineich, I. 2016. Reptiles terrestres et marins des îles Marquises:des espèces communes mais des populations isolées. In:Biodiversité Terrestre et Marine des Îles Marquises, PolynésieFrançaise; Galzin, R., Duron, S.-D., Meyer, J.-Y.,Eds. Paris, France, Société Française d’Ichtyologie, pp. 365–390. - get paper here
  • McCoy, M. 2000. Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. ZooGraphics, Kuranda (Australia), CD-ROM.
  • McCoy, M. 2006. Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. Pensoft Series Faunistica 57, 212 pp.
  • McCoy, M. 2015. A Field Guide to the Reptiles of the Solomon Islands. Michael McCoy, Kuranda - get paper here
  • McGregor, Richard C. 1904. Notes on Hawaiian Reptiles from the Island of Maui. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 28 (1383): 115-118 - get paper here
  • Mckeown, Sean 1996. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands. Diamond Head Publishing, Inc., Los Osos, CA,
  • Mertens,R. 1931. Ablepharus boutonii (DESJARDIN) und seine geographische Variation. Zool. Jahrb. Syst. 61: 63-210
  • Mys, Benoit 1988. The zoogeography of the scincid lizards from North Papua New Guinea (Reptilia: Scincidae). I. The distribution of the species. Bull. Inst. Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique (Biologie) 58: 127-183
  • Snyder, John Otterbein 1917. Notes on Hawaiian lizards. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 54 (2224): 19-25 [1919] - get paper here
  • Stejneger, L. 1899. The land reptiles of the Hawaiian Islands. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 21:783-813 - 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
  • Wiegmann, A. F. A. 1834. In: Dr. F. J. F. Meyen: Beiträge zur Zoologie gesammelt auf einer Reise um die Erde. Siebente Abhandlung. Amphibien. Nova Acta Physico-Medica Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina (Halle) 17: 185-268 [1835] - get paper here
  • Zug, G. R., I. Ineich, G. Pregill, and A. M. Hamilton. 2012. Lizards of Tonga and a description of a new Tongan treeskink (Squamata: Scincidae: Emoia samoensis Group). Pacific Science 66(2):225-237 - get paper here
  • ZUG, G.R. 2013. Reptiles and Amphibians of the Pacific Islands. University of California Press, Berkeley, 306 pp. - get paper here
  • ZUG, GEORGE R.; ALISON M. HAMILTON & CHRISTOPHER C. AUSTIN 2011. A new Emoia samoensis group lizard (Squamata: Scincidae) from the Cook Islands, South-central Pacific. Zootaxa 2765: 47–57 - get paper here
 
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