Systematics of Eutropis rugifera (Stoliczka, 1870) (Squamata: Scincidae) including the redescription of the holotype

Abstract

Eutropis rugifera has long been identified as a widespread species complex distributed in Nicobar, Peninsular Malaysia, Greater Sundaic Islands, Bali, Sulawesi and the Philippines. This skink was described by Stoliczka in 1870 from Nicobar Island based on a single specimen (holotype by monotypy). Later, Peters (1871), Bartlett (1895) and Werner (1896) described three more species which were morphologically similar to Euprepes percarinatus (from Java), Mabuia rubricollis (Borneo) and M. quinquecarinata (Sumatra) respectively, which are currently considered junior objective synonyms of Eutropis rugifera. We examined all the available synonym types and voucher specimens of Eutropis rugifera deposited at several museums. A morphological examination of the types of this species and mtDNA analysis (584 bp of 16S rRNA) of the samples from different biogeographic regions revealed that Eutropis rugifera from Nicobar Island, Bali Island, and Bawean Island are composed of a monophyletic species. However, the taxonomic status of the above population requires further clarification, and the population in Bawean Island may represent a cryptic species. Finally, we provide a complete redescription of E. rugifera based on its holotype.

Ancient divergence time estimates inEutropis rugiferasupport the existence of Pleistocene barriers on the exposed Sunda Shelf

“…Our phylogeographic results are consistent with Amarasinghe et al (2017) , who recovered substantially divergent lineages on Bali and Bawean island (although they did not estimate divergence times). If we were to combine the results of Amarasinghe et al (2017) with our own (different genetic loci), it is possible that there are between three and six major clades of Sundaic E. rugifera (and potentially even more from unsampled localities): (1.) Sumatra + Nicobar Islands; (2.)…”

“…1 ). Barley et al (2015) and Amarasinghe et al (2017) reported E. rugifera from Sulawesi in error based on samples from the Mentawai archipelago that Barley et al incorrectly attributed to Sulawesi. Inhabiting low and mid elevation rainforests as well as peat swamps, E. rugifera is the most arboreal Eutropis on Sundaland and, although generally terrestrial, has also been found up to a height of 2 m on tree trunks ( Das, 2004 ).…”

“…Adding to this dataset, topotypic material from the Nicobar Islands was found to show moderate molecular mitochondrial divergence from Sundaic (Bali and Sumatra) E. rugifera (mean uncorrected p-distance 4.6% for 12S; 2.5% for 16S; Datta-Roy et al, 2012 ). Amarasinghe et al (2017) included additional samples from Bali and from Bawean island to the north of Java, uncovering these populations as separate and divergent lineages. Increased divergence is common in island populations, and this level of divergence was not considered substantial enough to distinguish these populations as separate species.…”

Taxonomic status of two populations of Bent-toed Geckos of the Cyrtodactylus irregularis complex (Squamata: Gekkonidae) with description of a new species from Nui Chua National Park, southern Vietnam

“…DNA-barcoding techniques are now widely applied for uncovering hidden diversity in different groups of amphibians and reptiles (Smith et al 2008;Solovyeva et al 2011Solovyeva et al , 2014Che et al 2012;Nagy et al 2012;Xia et al 2012;Murphy et al 2013;Hartmann et al 2013;Amarasinghe et al, 2017;Orlova et al 2017). COI DNAbarcoding proved to be especially useful in revealing cryptic lineages within the genus Cyrtodactylus (Nazarov et al 2012Nguyen et al 2013Nguyen et al , 2014Nguyen et al , 2017Schneider et al 2014).…”

柬埔寨发现滑蜥属一新种（爬行纲：石龙子科）

“…We amplified a 653-bp fragment of cytochrome oxidase I ( COI ), a mitochondrial marker widely used as a DNA-barcoding marker for vertebrates, including reptiles and amphibians ( Murphy et al, 2013 ; Nagy et al, 2012 ; Smith et al, 2008 ), and for species identification in various groups of lizards ( Amarasinghe et al, 2017 ; Hartmann et al, 2013 ; Nazarov et al, 2012 , 2014 ; Orlova et al, 2017 Solovyeva et al, 2011 , 2014 ). We used two primer pairs for PCR and sequencing, depending on their performance in PCR, for different samples.…”