Discovery of a new reptile species from Kon Tum Plateau, Vietnam

18/11/2013

In a recent biodiversity expedition of the Wildlife at Risk (a non-governmental organization for conservation in Ho Chi Minh City) in Ba To District, Quang Ngai Province, a small-sized skink was collected by the survey team among leaf litter in the evergreen forest at an elevation approximately 1000 m above sea level, in Kon Tum Plateau. Based on morphological comparisons of this specimen, a group of scientists from Vietnam, USA, and Germany described it as a new species. The description of the new species was published in Zootaxa in November, 2013 (No. 3734). The new species, Sphenomorphus sheai Nguyen, Nguyen, Van Devender, Bonkowski & Ziegler, 2013, was named after Dr. Glenn Shea from the University of Sydney, Australia, in recognition of his contribution towards the systematic of scincid lizards.

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Shea’s Forest Skink Sphenomorphus sheai. Photo: Wayne Van Devender

Shea’s Forest Skink can be distinguished from other species by having a small size (snout-vent length ca. 35 mm), a thick tail (tail length ca. 59 mm), the absence of external ear openings, scaly lower eyelids, 20 midbody scale rows, 6 lamellae under fourth toe, upper head, dorsum and tail base bronze brown with fine dark dots, upper lateral head and flank with narrow black stripe from behind the eye to tail base, flank with dark markings, ventral surface cream. This is the second newly described species of forest skinks from Vietnam, after the discovery of Sphenomorphus tonkinensis from southern China and northern Vietnam in 2011.

Translated by: Nguyen Quang Truong
Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources

Link to Vietnamese Version