if) 1 I E> RARY OF THL U N IVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FI v.34 BIOIOCX Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of book* are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library DEC L161 O-1096 'O. FIELDIANA ZOOLOGY L^ Published by CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Volume 34 FEBRUARY 11, 1954 No. 25 NOTES ON SEVERAL LIZARDS OF THE GENUS EMOIA WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS A " WALTER C. BROWN DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Since my return to the United States from the Pacific theater of World War II, I have been engaged on research on the classification of Pacific Island amphibians and reptiles. When I turned from de- tailed studies on the amphibians of the Solomon Islands to the reptiles of those islands, a special series of problems was immediately evident in the lizards of the scincid genus Emoia. For the further- ance of my studies on Emoia, I wish to thank Dr. Karl P. Schmidt and Mr. Clifford H. Pope of Chicago Natural History Museum (C.N.H.M.), Mr. Charles Bogert of the American Museum of Nat- ural History (A.M.N.H.), Mr. Arthur Loveridge of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (M.C.Z.), Dr. Robert Stebbins of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California (M.V.Z.), Dr. George S. Myers of the Stanford Natural History Museum (S.N. H.M.) and Mr. James R. Slater of the College of Puget Sound (C.P.S.), who have lent the material used in this study. A number of species of Emoia exhibit marked modification of the primitive, simply rounded lamellae on the lower surface of the digits (fig. 44). The lamellae are thinned, transversely enlarged, and more numerous beneath the basal phalanges, suggesting adapta- tion to an arboreal or semi-arboreal habitat. Three or possibly four evolutionary lines within the genus show this modification. VUSff. Cyanogaster Group The cyanogaster group includes several species, ranging in size from a comparatively small lizard such as E. kordoana Meyer to a No. 729 263 "RARY OF THE FEB241S54 ILLINOIS 264 FIELDIANA, ZOOLOGY: VOLUME 34 moderately large form such as E. cyanogaster cyanogaster Lesson. All are relatively slender with elongate, pointed, depressed snouts and with the number of lamellae beneath the fourth toe very rarely below fifty. The two loreals on either side are of about equal length and both are narrow (fig. 45, a). The interparietal is con- sistently present in some species, consistently absent in others. FIG. 44. Under surface of fourth toe of (a) E. baudinii, (b) E. c. cyanogaster. There exist in the literature descriptions of nine species and three (possibly five) subspecies that refer to members of this group : E. beccarii Doria, E. carteretii Dume"ril and Bibron, E. cyanogaster Lesson, E. iridescens Boulenger, E. kordoana Meyer, E. longicauda Macleay, E. sorex Boettger, E. speistri Roux, E. tetrataenia Boul- enger, E. cyanogaster keiensis Sternfeld, E. cyanogaster aruensis Sternfeld, E. cyanogaster tongana Werner. Of the nine, E. carteretii is, on the basis of our present knowledge, a synonym of E. c. cyano- gaster; E. longicauda is apparently the earliest available name for the race of cyanogaster that occupies New Guinea, the islands of Torres Straits and possibly some other islands at the western end of New Guinea; and E. iridescens is a synonym of E. kordoana Meyer. Re-examination of the types, if possible, or examination of more extensive samples of the populations they represent, should be helpful in determining the exact status of E. beccarii and of the three subspecies. Emoia cyanogaster longicauda Macleay Specimens examined. M.C.Z. 9470, Murray Island, Torres Straits (H. L. Clark), 1913; M.C.Z. 45504, Prince of Wales Island, Torres Straits, 1929; C.N.H.M. 43181-82, Doromena, Dutch New BROWN: LIZARDS OF GENUS EMOIA 265 Guinea (S. G. Jewett, Jr., and H. Cook), 1945; A.M.N.H. 58402, Tarara, Papuan New Guinea (Archbold Expedition), 1938; A.M.N.H. 61958-59, Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea (Archbold Expedition), 1938; A.M.N.H. 66678, Gusika, Australian New Guinea, 1944. Emoia longicauda Macleay is revived from the synonymy of E. nigra Hombron and Jacquinot and made a race of E. cyanogaster, since this series of specimens from the islands of Torres Straits and New Guinea is in much closer agreement with Macleay's brief description (1877, p. 68) than are typical specimens of E. nigra. Boulenger's placing of E. longicauda in the synonymy of E. nigra (Boulenger, 1887, p. 297) was not without reservation, for an inter- rogation mark precedes the name and he does not include New Guinea or the islands of Torres Straits in the range of E. nigra. Although Macleay gave no scale counts, his description "Head rather elongate, and pointed at the muzzle, . . . frontonasals contig- uous; . . . the sixth upper labial plate more than twice the size of any of the preceding plates. Ear openings nearly round, with two or three denticulations in front . . . tail twice the length of the body . . ." is characteristic of specimens of this western race of E. cyanogaster but not of E. nigra. Also, on the basis of our present knowledge, the western limits of the range of E. nigra are the is- lands of the New Hebrides, the Solomons and the Bismarcks, with the exception of one somewhat doubtful record (Valise Island off northeast New Guinea; de Rooy, 1915, p. 261). Amended diagnosis. Differs from the typical race in the more uniform color pattern. The broad dark brown to blackish band along the side of the head and upper lateral surface of the body is absent or reduced to a few blotches; the dorsum is often more grayish or grayish-tan, marked frequently by scattered small, dark, and occasionally light spots as is cyanogaster at times. The dorso- lateral series of white or bluish spots, so often present in E. c. cyano- gaster, is not in evidence in the present series of E. cyanogaster longi- cauda; the latter is also a larger race. Five of the above eight specimens measure more than 85 mm. from snout to vent, the largest 98 mm. A.M.N.H. 58402, the smallest adult, measuring 79 mm. from snout to vent, is a female. The largest of a series of 24 specimens of c. cyanogaster from the Solomon Islands measures only 85 mm. from snout to vent; two males (C.N.H.M. 44894 and M.C.Z. 15107), measuring 65 and 67 mm., respectively, from snout to vent, are mature, and one female (M.C.Z. 15118), measuring 70 mm. from snout to vent, is gravid. 266 FIELDIANA, ZOOLOGY: VOLUME 34 Description. As in the typical race the body is slender; the tail is very long; the snout is long, pointed and depressed, with the two loreals of nearly equal length and very narrow; a small to moderate interparietal is consistently present; pref rentals are large but gener- ally separate in the present series; supranasals are triangular with their moderately broad bases against the rostral; they are not in contact with the anterior loreal; the number of rows of scales around the middle of the body ranges from 24 to 27; the number of rows of scales along the mid-dorsal line from the parietals to the base of the tail varies from 55 to 59; and the number of lamellae under the fourth toe ranges from 73 to 94. The color (in preservative) is generally grayish-tan or light brown on the dorsum and upper lateral surfaces. The broad, dark brown or blackish band on the body is entirely absent or only sug- gested by a few small, scattered, brownish spots. Occasionally bluish or bluish-white spots occupying the area of a single scale or less occur on the dorsal and lateral surfaces. Emoia kordoana Meyer Euprepes (Mabuya) kordoanus Meyer, 1874, Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1874: 133 Kordo, Mysore Island, Dutch New Guinea. Lygosoma iridescens Boulenger, 1897, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (6), 19: 9, pi. I, fig. 4 Mount Victoria, British New Guinea. Specimens examined. M.C.Z. 7683, Ansoes, Jobi Island, Dutch New Guinea (T. Barbour), 1907; M.C.Z. 7688, Wooi Bay, Dutch New Guinea (T. Barbour), 1907; M.C.Z. 7689, Sorong, Dutch New Guinea (T. Barbour), 1907; M.C.Z. 48603 (+1 uncatalogued), Aitape, New Guinea (W. M. Beck), 1944; M.C.Z. 49317, Toem, Dutch New Guinea (W. H. Stickel), 1944; C.P.S. 4311, 4327, Cape Endaiadere, Papuan New Guinea (W. C. Brown), 1944; S.N.H.M. 11617, Cape Endaiadere, Papuan New Guinea (W. C. Brown), 1944; A.M.N.H. 58655, Daviumbu, Papuan New Guinea (Archbold Expedition); A.M.N.H. 59172, Kubuna, Papuan New Guinea (Archbold Expedition). The specimens from New Guinea in the collections of the Mu- seum of Comparative Zoology were referred to E. cyanogaster by Loveridge (1948, p. 366). I called his attention to the probable validity of E. kordoana unfortunately too late for his consideration at that time. He very kindly suggested that I re-examine the material and publish my conclusions at a later date. Emoia kordoana is a smaller lizard than the races of E. cyanogaster. A male (A.M.N.H. 59172) is mature at a length of 43 mm. from BROWN: LIZARDS OF GENUS EMOIA 267 snout to vent, and a female (A.M.N.H. 58655) is gravid at 48 mm. The largest of the present series, a male (C.P.S. 4327), measures 59 mm. from snout to vent. The number of lamellae beneath the digits is generally less than is characteristic of known races of E. cyanogaster and the interparietal is consistently absent. E. kordoana was placed in the synonymy of E. cyanura by Boulenger (1887, p. 290). The name was later revived by Sternfeld (1918, p. 411) but was assigned to the species now recognized as E. cattistica Peters and Doria. Schiiz (1929, p. 8), after re-examination of the type, again placed E. kordoana in the synonymy of E. cyanura, but with reservation. He did so primarily because of the close correspondence in the number of lamellae under the toes (70-72 under the fourth toe for the type of E. kordoana) and the number of rows of scales around the middle of the body (26 for the type of E. kordoana). Other characteristics the more depressed snout and the much longer and narrower anterior loreal distinguish this species from E. cyanura and indicate its closer relationship to the members of the cyanogaster group. The specimens from Daviumbu and Kubuna the latter locality is near Mount Victoria, the type locality of E. iridescens are wholly in agreement with the description of Emoia iridescens. Since they cannot be distinguished on morphological grounds (to which our present knowledge is limited) from specimens of E. kordoana from other localities throughout New Guinea, I regard E. iridescens as a synonym of E. kordoana. Description. The body is slender; the snout is pointed and depressed; the anterior loreal is as long as the posterior or nearly so and equally narrow; the prefrontals are separate; the supranasals are narrow, triangular, posteriorly in contact with or but narrowly separated from the anterior loreal; the supralabial beneath the orbit (generally the sixth) is large, its length about 50 per cent of its dis- tance from the rostral; the interparietal is absent. The number of rows of scales around the middle of the body ranges from 24 to 28, the number of lamellae beneath the fourth toe from 65 to 82, the number of rows of scales along the mid-dorsal line from the parietals to the base of the tail from 52 to 56 for eleven specimens. Color (in preservative) on the dorsum grayish olive-green or grayish brown, adults generally with the lateral margins of the scales dark brown or with two or more rows of dark brown spots; a narrow, generally broken, darker band of brown of varying intensity along the upper lateral surfaces from the region of the eye to the hind 268 FIELDIANA, ZOOLOGY: VOLUME 34 limb; lower lateral surfaces bluish white to tan; venter of the same color but generally lighter. This is in close agreement with Meyer's brief description, "Oli- venfarbig oben, jede Schuppenreihe von der anderen durch etwas Schwarz geschieden; an den Seiten blaulich, unten gelblichweiss." In life, C.P.S. 4327 was greenish-brown on the dorsum mottled with darker brown, light brown on the tail ; laterally more grayish- green with an irregular brownish stripe extending from the eye to the hind limb. A juvenile (C.P.S. 4311) was greenish-copper on the dorsum when alive. Differences in size and scale counts for the species discussed above are summarized in Table I. INCERTAE SEDIS Euprepes (Mabuya) carteretii mysorensis Meyer, 1874, Mo- natsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1874: 133 Mysore Island, Dutch New Guinea. Meyer's complete description is as follows: "Schwarzer Streif vom Auge bis an die Vorderextremitaten, Unterseite schon blau." Euprepes (Mabuya) samoensis moluccensis Peters, 1864, Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1864: 386 Moti Island, Mollucas. Peters' description is as follows: "Oben olivenbraun mit metal- lischem Glanze und unregelmassig schwarz gesprenkelt, unten griin- gelb. Die Supranasalia viel kleiner und die Ohrb'ffnungen enger, sonst in der Gestalt und Pholidosis so sehr mit E. samoensis iiberein- stimmend, dass ich nicht wage, das einzige Exemplar, welches Hr. Dr. v. Martens auf der Mollukkeninsel Moti eingesammelt hat, davon zu trennen." These descriptions may or may not refer to members of the E. cyanogaster group. Cyanura Group The members of the cyanura group are small to moderate-sized lizards, distinguished from the members of the cyanogaster group by the less elongate and less depressed snout. The anterior loreal is much shorter and higher than the posterior and in contact anteriorly with the supranasal (fig. 45, 6). Descriptions of four species, E. arundeli Garman, E. cyanura Lesson, E. cuniceps de Vis, and E. im- OS J2 2 ** 'S O eo o o 4| o ^ o I I e!^ ;u <0 10 tft Hi 713 sgtf SSP3 sgtf (M i? CO OJ t* Lamella fourth -US 3 P5 R=65-8 TH c