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Dravidoseps pruthi (SHARMA, 1977)

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Higher TaxaScincidae, Lygosominae (Lygosomini), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Pruthi’s (supple) skink, Pruthi’s leaf-litter skink 
SynonymRiopa pruthi SHARMA 1977
Lygosoma pruthi — DAS 1996: 46
Lygosoma pruthi — DAS 2003
Lygosoma cf. pruthi — GANESH & ARUMUGAM 2016
Subdoluseps pruthi — FREITAS et al. 2019
Dravidoseps pruthi — AGARWAL et al. 2024 
DistributionIndia (Tamil Nadu)

Type locality: Chitteri (= Sitteri), a hill range located near Dharmapuri, in Southern Eastern Ghats, lat. 11°50′N, long. 78°25′E  
Reproduction 
TypesNeotype: NRC-AA-1291 (AK-R 2222), adult female, from Sitteri Hills (11.90208°N, 78.51800°E; elevation ca. 880 m asl.), Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu State, India, collected by Akshay Khandekar, Ishan Agarwal, Swapnil Pawar and team on 29th May 2022 (designated by Agarwal et al. 2024). The holotype: ZSI 22393, is considered lost (Das et al. 1998; Ganesh and Aengals 2018; Ganesh et al. 2021, Agarwal et al. 2024).
Additional material (n = 9). NRC-AA-1292 (AK 803), NRC-AA-1293 (AK 804), and NRC-AA-1294 (AK 805), subadults, from Forest Department campus, Sitteri Hills (11.89152°N, 78.50747°E; elevation ca. 950 m asl.), Dharmapuri District, collected by Akshay Khandekar, Ishan Agarwal, Swapnil Pawar, Tejas Thackeray and team on 1st June 2019; BNHS 2525 (AK-R 2197), BNHS 2557 (AK-R 2198), BNHS 2558 (AK-R 2200), adult males, from Palamalai Hills (11.70744°N, 77.73598°E; elevation ca. 1000 m asl.); ZSI-R-28600 (AK-R 2201), subadult, from Palamalai Hills (11.73335°N, 77.73156°E; elevation ca. 600 m asl.), Salem District, same collectors as neotype, collected on 28th May 2022; ZSI-R-28601 (AK-R 2716), adult male, from Vanavasi Reserve Forest (11.75203°N, 77.84129°E; elevation ca. 520 m asl.), Salem District, same collectors as neotype, collected on 11th October 2022; ZSI-R-28602 (AK-R 2750), adult female, from north of Yercaud (11.90822°N, 78.18878°E; elevation ca. 650 m asl.), in Shevaroy Hills, Salem District, same collectors as neotype, collected on 15th October 2022. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (Dravidoseps). Medium-sized skinks (adult SVL < 58 mm; n = 89), original tail equal to or slightly longer than body. Dorsal scales on body and tail smooth, cycloid, imbricate; ventrals similar except marginally larger on pectoral and precloacal region; scales on lateral tail base smooth or tricarinate; 62–70 scales in paravertebral rows; 26–32 scales around mid-body; 61–73 ventral scales (rarely 76, n = 1/89); 8–12 enlarged precloacal scales (rarely 13, n = 1/89); and 18–23 scales round the tail. Supranasals in contact with each other behind rostral (rarely not in contact, n = 1/89); single frontonasal; prefrontals relatively small, widely separated on midline; frontal elongate, bell-shaped; four supraoculars; three supraoculars in contact with frontoparietal (rarely two, n = 4/89); frontoparietal divided; interparietal diamond-shaped, eyespot in posterior projection; parietals large, in medial contact posterior to interparietal; 2–4 nuchals, either in contact behind parietals or separated medially by 1–3 paravertebral scales. Nasal divided; two loreals; a single pre-supraocular; two preoculars (rarely three, n = 4/89); and a single sub-preocular (rarely absent, n = 5/89); 6–8 supraciliaries (rarely nine, n = 1/89); lower eyelid with enlarged, transparent central window; a single post-supraocular and postocular; and three or four sub-postoculars (rarely five, n = 3/89); a single primary, two secondary (rarely three, n = 1/89), and three tertiary (rarely four, n = 1/89) temporals. Six or seven supralabials and infralabials; fourth or fifth supralabial elongate, below eye; one or two post-supralabials; 1–3 ear lobules; three enlarged pairs of chin shields. Pentadactyl; limbs well-developed; subdigital lamellae unpaired, smooth to weakly keeled; 4–7 lamellae under digit I of manus and pes, 9–12 lamellae under digit IV of manus and 12–17 lamellae under digit IV of pes (rarely 18, n = 1/89). Viviparous, litter size 2–4. Dorsum light coconut to dark chocolate brown; thick dark band from rostrum to tail speckled with light spots; supralabials with a white streak; males with yellow on lower parts of forebody and flanks, sometimes extending onto belly; venter white with some darker markings (Fig. 9).
Dravidoseps gen. nov. differs from Subdoluseps by the presence of a transparent central window in the lower eyelid (versus no transparent central window in the lower eyelid), by the presence of an open secondary palate (versus a closed secondary palate) and by being viviparous (versus oviparous) (Freitas et al. 2019; Zimin et al. 2021, Agarwal et al. 2024).


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CommentSimilar species: Subdoluseps nilgiriensis

Type species: Riopa pruthi SHARMA 1977 is the type species of the genus Dravidoseps AGARWAL et al. 2024. 
EtymologyNamed after its collector Dr. Hem Singh Pruthi (1897-1969) an eminent entomologist from the erstwhile ‘Punjab’ (Lal, 1954; Beolens et al., 2011)

The genus name Dravidoseps is a combination of the Sanskrit ‘Dravida’, referring to the original inhabitants of southern India and Sri Lanka, and the Ancient Greek ‘seps’, for a snake-like creature that has been previously used in skink generic names (e.g. Erens et al. 2017; Freitas et al. 2019). The gender of the genus is masculine and the suggested common name is Indian leaf-litter skinks. 
References
  • Agarwal I, Thackeray T, Khandekar A 2024. A non-adaptive radiation of viviparous skinks from the seasonal tropics of India: sys- tematics of Subdoluseps (Squamata: Scincidae), with description of a new genus and five cryptic new species. Vertebrate Zoology 74: 23–83
  • Beolens, Bo; Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA - get paper here
  • Das, Indraneil 2003. Growth of Knowledge on the Reptiles of India, with an Introduction to Systematics, Taxonomy and Nomenclature. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 100 (2-3): 446-502 - get paper here
  • FREITAS, ELYSE S.; ANIRUDDHA DATTA-ROY, PRAVEEN KARANTH, L. LEE GRISMER and CAMERON D. SILER 2019. Multilocus phylogeny and a new classification for African, Asian and Indian supple and writhing skinks (Scincidae: Lygosominae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 186 (4): 1067–1096 - get paper here
  • Ganesh, S. R.; M. Arumugam 2016. Species Richness of Montane Herpetofauna of Southern Eastern Ghats, India: A Historical Resume and a Descriptive Checklist. Russ. J. Herpetol. 23 (1): 7-24 - get paper here
  • GANESH, S. R.; SRIKANTHAN, A. N., GHOSH, A., ADHIKARI, O. D., KUMAR, S. V. V., & DATTA-ROY, ANIRUDDHA 2021. A new species of Asian gracile skink (Scincidae: Lygosominae: Subdoluseps) from the rain-shadow belts of Nilgiri hills, Western Ghats, India. Zootaxa 4950 (2): 361-376 - get paper here
  • Ganesh, S.R. and R. Aengals 2018. On further specimens of the poorly-known Pruthi’s skink Lygosoma pruthi (Sharma, 1977) with an expanded description. Asian Journal of Conservation Biology 7 (2): 128-132
  • Ganesh, S.R.; A. Kalaimani, P. Karthik, N. Baskaran, R. Nagarajan & S.R.Chandramouli 2018. Herpetofauna of Southern Eastern Ghats, India – II From Western Ghats to Coromandel Coast. Asian Journal of Conservation Biology, July 2018. Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 28-45 - get paper here
  • Sharma R C 1977. A new lizard of the genus Riopa Gray (Scincidae) from Tamil Nadu, India. Records Zool. Survey India 73 (1-4): 41-42 - get paper here
  • Venugopal, P.D. 2010. An updated and annotated list of Indian lizards (Reptilia: Sauria) based on a review of distribution records and checklists of Indian reptiles. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2 (3): 725-738. - get paper here
 
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