Sphenomorphus jobiensis (MEYER, 1874)
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Sphenomorphus jobiensis
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| Higher Taxa | Scincidae, Sphenomorphinae, Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Lygosoma (Hinulia) jobiense MEYER 1874 Eumeces aruensis DORIA 1874 Hinulia megaspila GÜNTHER 1877: 128 Lygosoma (Sphenomorphus) megaspila megaspila — LOVERIDGE 1948: 345 Lygosoma jobiense — BOULENGER 1895: 29 Lygosoma jobiense — DE ROOIJ 1915: 195 Lygosoma jobiense elegans STERNFELD 1918 Lygosoma amblyplacodes VOGT 1932: 283 Sphenomorphus jobiensis — BURT & BURT 1932 Otosaurus amblyplacodes — SMITH 1937: 218 Otosaurus jobiense — SMITH 1937: 218 Lygosoma (Sphenomorphus) aruensis — LOVERIDGE 1948 Sphenomorphus amblyplacodes — GREER & PARKER 1967 Sphenomorphus jobiensis — ZWEIFEL 1980: 420 Sphenomorphus jobiensis — MYS 1988: 143 Sphenomorphus variegatus jobiense Sphenomorphus jobiensis — AUSTIN 1995 Sphenomorphus jobiense — LINKEM et al. 2010 Sphenomorphus amblyplacodes — LINKEM et al. 2010 |
| Distribution | Papua New Guinea, Admirality Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Indonesia (Misool, Salawati, Aru Islands, Irian Jaya and Yapen) elegans: Type locality: “Ross-Insel, Neu-Pommern” amblyplacodes: Indonesia (Irian Jaya), New Guinea; Type locality: New Guinea |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Lectotype: ZMB 8985. Designation by Wermuth in Inger (1961); see Bauer et al. (2003). Syntypes: ZMB 7939, MSNG 27901 [aruensis] Lectotypus: SMF 14482 (=Kat. MERTENS 6247, la). female [elegans] Syntypes: ZMB 26462, 64292 (formerly part of ZMB 26462); Holl. Neu-Guinea l= Papua Propinsi, Indoncsia'l; con. Dr. Moszkowski [amblyplacodes] |
| Diagnosis | Description: Snout short, obtuse; lower eyelid scaly; ear-opening large, oval, slightly smaller than the eye-opening, no lobules. Nostril in the nasal; no supranasals; two superposed anterior loreals; frontonasal more broad than long, in contact with the rostral, which is long and rounded behind; praefrontals usually forming a suture; frontal as long as frontoparietals and interparietal together, in contact with the two or three anterior supraoculars; five supraoculars, first largest; ten to twelve supraciliaries; frontoparietals a little longer than the interparietal; parietals in contact; sometimes nuchals present; sixth or seventh upper labial below the eye. Body long, the distance between the tip of the snout and the fore limb is contained about one time and a half in that between axilla and groin; 38 46 smooth scales round the middle, dorsals largest, laterals smallest; praeanals enlarged. Tail about one time and a half the length of head and body. Limbs strong, the hind limb reaches the wrist or the elbow; digits compressed, fourth toe with 18 27 smooth or keeled lamellae below (de Rooij 1915: 195). Coloration: Brown above, uniform or with small blackish spots or irregular dark cross bands; a dorso-lateral series of light, black-edged ocelli may be present; flanks speckled with dark brown or with a broad black band from the eye to the hind limb, the upper border of the band wavy; a dark streak through the eye; sometimes three or five black spots on each side of the anterior part of the body, the first above the ear; lips spotted with brown; limbs dark-spotted, soles greyish-brown, tail with a series of pale spots on each side, bordered with black. Lower parts yellowish; throat sometimes with brown spots or lines (de Rooij 1915: 195). Size: Length of head and body ii6mm.; tail 183 mm (de Rooij 1915: 195). |
| Comment | Habitat: forest floor. Synonymy: Eumeces aruensis was synonymized with S. jobiensis by BOULENGER 1887 which was confirmed by ZWEIFEL 1980. Hinulia megaspila Günther was placed in the synonymy of jobiense Meyer by Boulenger (1887:247) which Loveridge 1948 regards as a very different reptile; hence the status of H megaspila remains unclear here and is placed in the synonymy of S. jobiense only preliminarily. Lygosoma rufum BOULENGER 1887 has been removed from the synonymy of S. jobiensis. Lygosoma amblyplacodes is a synonym of S. jobiense fide G. Shea, pers. comm. via Shei Meiri, 5 Aug 2014. Recognition of aruensis for the purposes of the IUCN listing was based on unpublished work by Shea and Greer, who were able to link the name aruensis to one of the entities identified as specifically distinct on allozyme electrophoresis by Donnellan & Aplin (1989) [the other species identified by D&A are unnamed] (Glenn Shea and David Chapple, pers. comm. 11 March 2019). |
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