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(A) Eutropis beddomei (Jerdon, 1870); (B) E. vertebralis (Boulenger 1887) [formerly E. trivittata]; (C) E. nagarjunensis (Sharma 1969); (E) E. trivittata (Hardwicke & Gray 1827) [formerly E. dissimilis] in Amarasinghe, Ganesh, Mirza, Campbell, ... et Supriatna, 2022. Illustration: A.A.T. Amarasinghe. facebook.com/Thasun |
Abstract
We re-evaluate the taxonomic identities of five-lined skinks of the genus Eutropis (E. trivittata, E. beddomei, E. nagarjunensis, and E. bibronii) inhabiting the Indian subcontinent. Previously it has been considered that E. trivittata is distributed in the western India and E. dissimilis in the northern India (from north-eastern India up to Pakistan). Based on our analysis, we revealed that the illustration (iconotype) of the untraceable type specimen of E. trivittata depicted by Hardwicke in Gray (1834) from “Dumdum” near Kolkata, West Bengal matches the typical E. dissimilis, also described from “Bengal”. The senior synonym, E. trivittata is a morphologically unique species, which is also supported by divergence in the mitochondrial 12S and 16S regions. E. trivittata is clearly separated with divergences of 5–7% from E. beddomei, E. vertebralis and E. nagarjunensis for 16S rRNA. After placing E. dissimilis with the synonymy of E. trivittata, the taxonomic status of the western Indian ‘E. trivittata’ required to be clarified. Therefore, we resurrect Mabuia vertebralis Boulenger, 1887, a junior synonym of western Indian E. trivittata, and redescribe its holotype collected from “Belgaum”, Karnataka. Although, morphologically closest to E. beddomei, Eutropis vertebralis comb. nov. is a sister taxon to E. nagarjunensis with divergence of 4% in the same mitochondrial regions. Based on our update of the currently confirmed localities for E. vertebralis comb. nov. and E. trivittata, we conducted a Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) using the Maximum Entropy algorithm to predict their distribution range, and we discuss their conservation status.
Keywords: Holotype, Iconotype, Morphometric, Neotype, Resurrection, Synonymy, Systematics
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| Dorsolateral and lateral stripes (A1–E1); vertebral and dorsolateral stripes (A2–E2) and body colouration of Eutropis beddomei group [(A) Eutropis beddomei, (B) E. vertebralis [formerly E. trivittata], and (C) E. nagarjunensis)]; (D) E. bibronii; and (E) E. trivittata [formerly E. dissimilis] Illustration: A.A.T. Amarasinghe. |
Eutropis vertebralis (Boulenger 1887a) comb. nov.
Eutropis trivittata (Hardwicke & Gray 1827).
Conclusion:
The five-lined Eutropis in Indian Peninsula are composed of four species: E. beddomei, E. vertebralis, E. bibronii, and E. nagarjunensis. Although, these four species are morphologically similar, E. bibronii is an evolutionary divergent species from the rest of three. After placing E. dissimilis in the synonymy of E. trivittata and resurrecting E. vertebralis from the synonymy of E. trivittata, the populations previously treated as (i) E. dissimilis must be assigned as E. trivittata, and (ii) E. trivittata must be assigned as E. vertebralis. Our study also shows the influence of distribution modeling and its narrow correspondence with species delimitation. We further suggest that whenever possible, such modeling should be associated in integrative studies describing new taxa or revisions of species clades. The conservation status of E. trivittata will remain as Least Concern (LC) while E. vertebralis can be treated as a Vulnerable (VU) species.
A.A. Thasun Amarasinghe, S.R. Ganesh, Zeeshan A. Mirza, Patrick D. Campbell, Olivier S.G. Pauwels, Silke Schweiger, Alexander Kupfer, Harshil Patel, Suranjan Karunarathna, Kaushik Deuti, Ivan Ineich, Jakob Hallermann, A. Abinawanto and Jatna Supriatna. 2022. The Delusion of Stripes: A Century-old Mystery of Five-lined Sun Skinks (Reptilia: Scincidae: Eutropis) of Peninsular India elucidated. Zoologischer Anzeiger. 296; 71-90. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcz.2021.11.004
