Eumeces persicus FAIZI, RASTEGAR-POUYANI, RASTEGAR-POUYANI, NAZAROV, HEIDARI, ZANGI, ORLOVA & POYARKOV, 2017
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Eumeces persicus
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| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Scincinae, Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Persian striped skink |
| Synonym | Eumeces persicus FAIZI, RASTEGAR-POUYANI, RASTEGAR-POUYANI, NAZAROV, HEIDARI, ZANGI, ORLOVA & POYARKOV 2017 |
| Distribution | Iran (Tehran Province) Type locality: 28 km southwest of Tehran Province from flat plains around the Imam Khomaini Airport (IKA), at 528078 E, 3917723 N (UTM), at an elevation of about 1100m. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: RUZM SE-07 (Razi University Zoological Museum), an adult male, collected by Hiva Faizi, on 26th of June 2011. Paratypes: two specimens, one male ZMMU R-14723 (SVL: 101.8 mm; TL: 151.2 mm) and one female ZMMU R-15005 (SVL: 96.2 mm, TL:157 mm) were collocated by Roman Nazarov, 04.05.2014 in Kerman Province, about 20 km SE of Orzueeyeh city, N 28 26; E 56 10, h 1047m a.s.l. This locality is about 900 km from the type locality. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: The new striped, small-bodied Eumeces persicus sp. nov. differs in morphology, habitat characteristics, and behavior from the uniform-colored, large-bodied E. s. princeps and E. zarudnyi. The new species is considered a desert dweller in the plains of central Iranian plateau in the eastern slopes of the Zagros Mountains. It is a medium-sized skink, (SVL: 103.27; TL: 115.45), distinguished by two clear, wide, and brown lateral lines extending from the ear opening to the hindlimbs, and two relatively less distinct brown lines along both sides of vertebral line, with scattered light orange spots in life, two median rows of dorsal scale widely enlarged, in eight longitudinal rows. Eyelids with transparent discs (Fig. 3). Due to relatively similarity in overall body forms in Eumeces persicus sp. nov. and E. cholistanensis and their geographical vicinity, we present some pholidosis characteristics to clarify the distinctness and validation of these species (Table 4). Some descriptive differences are as follows: the nasal scale slightly contacts the first supralabial, but not touching the second one; in contrast, in E. cholistanensis (and also in E. s. princeps) the nasal scale is in contact with first supralabial; the interparietal and frontal are in the same shape, the length of the former is more than half the length of the latter in E. cholistanensis, while in E. persicus sp.nov the length of frontal is greater than the length of interparietal; the frontonasal in E. cholistanensis is slightly smaller than each prefrontal, wider than long, its width less than one and one-half times its length, extending considerably forward between the supranasals, which are laterally in contact with nasals which is exactly in reverse situation in E. persicus sp. nov. There are trianglar prefrontals in E. persicus sp. nov. in comparison with hexagonal prefrontals in E. cholistanensis. Ear openings are vertical with five preauricular lobules in E. persicus sp. nov., in contrast to there being no lobules on the ear openings of E. cholistanensis. The number of subdigital lamellae under the toes and fingers are greater in E. persicus sp. nov. than in E. cholistanensis (Fig. 3 and Table 4 in FAIZI et al. 2017). |
| Comment | |
| Etymology | The species epithet “persicus” is an adjective that refers to the current known distribution of the new species—Iran (= Persia). |
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