The first riparian skink (Genus: Sphenomorphus Strauch, 1887) from Peninsular Malaysia and its relationship to other Indochinese and Sundaic species

Abstract

Recently discovered populations of skinks of the genus Sphenomorphus from central Peninsular Malaysia represent a new species, S. sungaicolus sp. nov., and the first riparian skink known from Peninsular Malaysia. Morphological analyses of an earlier specimen reported as S. tersus from the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Selangor indicate that it too is the new riparian species S. sungaicolus sp. nov. Additionally, two specimens from the Tembat Forest Reserve, Hulu Terengganu, Kelantan and another from Ulu Gombak, Selangor have been diagnosed as new the species. The latter specimen remained unidentified in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii since its collection in June 1962. Morphological and molecular analyses demonstrate that S. sungaicolus sp. nov. forms a clade with the Indochinese species S. maculatus, S. indicus, and S. tersus and is the sister species of the latter. Sphenomorphus sungaicolus sp. nov. can be differentiated from all other members of this clade by having a smaller SVL (66.5-89.6 mm); 39-44 midbody scale rows; 72-81 paravertebral scales; 74-86 ventral scales; a primitive plantar scale arrangement; and 20-22 scale rows around the tail at the position of the 10^th subcaudal.

The Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Three Sphenomorphinae Species (Squamata: Scincidae) and the Selective Pressure Analysis on Mitochondrial Genomes of Limbless Isopachys gyldenstolpei

“…The species Isopachys clustered into a clade with the Tropidophorus genus and not with the Sphenomorphus genus, a result that is different from some previous conclusions [ 12 , 44 , 69 , 73 ]. Using 12S and 16S RNAs, the clades (( Isopachys + ( Sphenomorphus + ( Lipinia + Scincella ))) + Tropidophorus ) were supported in BI, ML, and maximum parsimony (MP) trees constructed by Honda et al [ 73 ].…”

“…Using 12S and 16S RNAs, the clades (( Isopachys + ( Sphenomorphus + ( Lipinia + Scincella ))) + Tropidophorus ) were supported in BI, ML, and maximum parsimony (MP) trees constructed by Honda et al [ 73 ]. Although the same genes were used (12S and 16S RNA) in the phylogenetic analysis of Peninsular Malaysia skinks, Rizal et al found that the clade of ((( Tropidophorus + Sphenomorphus ) + Lipinia ) + Isopachys ) was supported in both ML and BI trees [ 12 ]. These differences in topological structures may be related to the amount of data used to construct the phylogenetic tree.…”

“…Thus, there is much interest in the typical morphological characteristics of limb loss and axial elongation in Scincidae. For example, the species-rich genus, Sphenomorphus , shows diverse lifestyles in a wide array of habitats, ranging from upland cloud forests to small, arid, virtually barren islands, to lowland and hill forests dominated by Dipterocarpus [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. In contrast, lizards of the genus Tropidophorus are semi-aquatic and mainly dwell in lowlands near mainland forest streams [ 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”

Two new Tytthoscincus Linkem, Diesmos, & Brown (Squamata; Scincidae) from Peninsular Malaysia and another case of microsyntopy between ecologically specialized, unrelated, leaf-litter species

“…Grismer et al 2017a) of Tytthoscincus from Peninsular Malaysia and not members of the lowland swamp clade (sec. Grismer et al 2016Grismer et al , 2017b nor are they each other's closest relatives despite their occurrence in the same area (Fig. 4).…”

Uneven Species Occurrence and Richness of Lowland Snakes (Serpentes, Squamata) in Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia with New Locality Records.

“…In contrast, a few new discoveries on various faunal groups were made here. Several new species of crabs (Ng and Ahmad 2016;Ng 2020) and skinks species (Grismer et al 2014(Grismer et al , 2018Sumarli et al 2016) had been made from SLF, implying that the diversity of fauna and more specifically reptiles, is high in this underexplored forest.…”