Lygosoma boehmei
Abstract
A new Lygosoma species is described from the Central Truong Son (Annamite mountain range) of Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. The description is based on a single female specimen, collected during the dry season in the karst forest of Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park. The new Lygosoma differs from any other congener by the dorsal scales with pseudokeels in combination with a pair of frontoparietals; a scaly lower eyelid; seven supralabials; seven infralabials; 32 midbody scale rows; 66 middorsal (paravertebral) scales; smooth ventral scales, arranged in 81 transverse rows; 108 smooth, not enlarged median subcaudal scales; the fourth toe with 14 keeled subdigital lamellae; a reddish brown to brownish black dorsum and an orange-yellowish to greyish ventral side in life; as well as greyish black edged sutures of anterior supra- and infralabials. The new Lygosoma species is the third karst-adapted scincid species that has been described from Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park since 2005. A first molecular positioning of the new species within the genus Lygosoma is given as well as a key to the Vietnamese Lygosoma species.
Author Keywords: Central Truong Son; Lygosoma boehmei sp. n.; Phylogeny; Sauria; Scincidae; Taxonomy; Vietnam
Index Keywords: Lygosoma; Sauria; Scincidae; Squamata
Distribution: Vietnam (Quang Binh)
Type locality: karst forest of Cha Noi, 350-400 m elevation, Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Quang Binh Province, Vietnam.
Ziegler, T; Schmitz, A; Heidrich, A; Vu, NT; Nguyen, QT 2007. A new species of Lygosoma (Squamata: Sauria: Scincidae) from the Central Truong Son, Vietnam, with notes on its molecular phylogenetic position. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 114 (2): 397-415
Thompson, C. & Thompson, T. 2008. First contact in the Greater Mekong - new species discoveries. WWF, 40 pp. http://worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2008/WWFBinaryitem10994.pdf
