Lygisaurus

Abstract: On New Guinea and its surrounding islands, an assortment of Carlia with weakly tricarinate to smooth dorsal scales has been variously recognized as C. fusca or members of the fusca group. The C. fusca group has never been defined or characterized explicitly, nor has any other group of Carlia. A preliminary cladistic analysis of the Australian, New Guinean, and Sundan Carlia failed to identify species groups. This maximum parsimony analysis using a character set of predominantly scalation and body proportions yielded 1 putative clades with the other Carlia species branching before this clade. Additionally, the 2 Lygisaurus species are within the Carlia cluster and near the base. Removing body size and sexual dimorphism yielded a consensus tree with 2 small clades among a massive polytomy of all other taxa including the outgroups; the clades were: (dogare, vivax); (((coensis, scirtetis) beccarii, luctuosa) longipes, rostralis). The New Guinea “fusca” species were not linked as an unambiguous clade; nevertheless, the subsequent morphological analyses demonstrated a high similarity of the New Guinea species and their continued recognition as the Carlia fusca complex is recommended. This complex contains only the New Guinea and adjacent island species, C. leucotaenia and C. tutela of the Mollucas, C. longipes of Cape York and Torres Strait islands, and tentatively the Lesser Sundan species C. babarensis and C. beccarii. This complex is characterized, but it is not proposed as a formal taxonomic unit. Quantitative analysis of meristic, morphometric, and color pattern characters of New Guinean C. ”fusca” reveals at least 14 species in the New Guinea region. Names are available for the Babar and Tanimbar populations (C. babarensis); the Kei islands (C. beccarii); southeastern Irian Jaya (IJ) and Aru (C. diguliensis); Waigeo, north coastal Vogelkop IJ (C. fusca); southeastern Papua New Guinea (PNG) (C. luctuosa); northeastern IJ and northwestern PNG (C. pulla); and Seram-Ambon (C. leucotaenia). Although interpopulational variation in scalation is slight, differences in juvenile and adult coloration and adult sizes suggest the recognition of the previous named species as well as several new species. The new species are C. aenigma from the eastern PNG Gulf lowlands, C. ailanpalai from the Admiralty Islands, C. aramia from the central PNG Gulf area to the Morehead plains and to mid elevations in the Fly drainage, C. eothen from the vicinity of Milne Bay and the eastern island groups, C. mysi of the PNG north coast from Adelbert Mtns. area east to Cape Vogel and the Bismarck Archipelago, and C. tutela of Halmahera and Morotai. Several areas (PNG highlands, IJ south-central coast, and Sepik drainage) have populations that potentially represent new species, but the present samples and analyses were inadequate for confirmation. Current morphological data provide no reliable clues to assess interspecific relationships among the New Guinea “fusca” complex, hence this uncertainty does not allow a detailed biogeographical analysis. The distributions of the presently recognized taxa do not match closely those of any other clade of lizards, or any other group of reptiles, amphibians, or other New Guinea organisms. The oldest portion of New Guinea, the Australian craton, harbors the greatest number of fusca complex species but offers no direct clues to their isolation and subsequent speciation. Unicolor populations occur in several areas, typically small island habitats. The Admiralty populations are recognized as a distinct species, C. ailanpalai, and the similarity of the Guam Carlia suggests that this population and those on nearby Micronesian islands derive from the Admiralties and the post-World War II transport of military supplies. The Kei, north coast IJ, and Halmahera unicolor populations cannot be assigned with surety to any of the recognized species. The Palau Carlia also appears to represent an accidental post-WWI

Abstract: Menetia timlowi Ingram 1977 has had a chequered generic history due to ambiguity in interpreting its various character states. Ingram (1977) assigned this species to Menetia on the strength of “the long narrow obliquely oriented first supraocular” and “enlarged upper circumoculars”. In doing so, he admitted the possibility that M. timlowi “may in fact be a Carlia” but because “all Carlia, except burnetti, lack fused lower eyelids and have a typically anvil shaped presubocular”, allocating timlowi to Menetia seemed the best available option. Ingram and Covacevich (1988) revisited the generic status of this species when resurrecting Lygisaurus from the synonymy of Carlia to accommodate a group of small leaf-litter dwelling skinks. In proposing the new combination L. timlowi (Ingram 1977), they considered the supraoculars to be transverse whereas Ingram had stated them to be oblique in his original species description.

Abstract: The Australian skink genera Lygisaurus and Menetia are diagnosed on the basis of derived morphological characters. Menetia consists of the six species traditionally included therein (alanae, amaura, concinna, greyii, maini, and surda), plus three additional species (timlowi, koshlandae, and sadlieri). Menetia koshlandae and M. sadlieri are described as new and along with M. timlowi, most recently assigned to Lygisaurus, are shown to constitute a distinct subgroup within Menetia. A key is provided to all nine species of Menetia, and some notes are presented on reproduction, habitat and color for three species. Menetia is a group of small, ground-dwelling skinks occurring in arid, semi-arid, and seasonally dry habitats in Australia. Six species are currently recognized in the genus. Recently, a species originally described as M. timlowi by Ingram (1977), was reallocated to the genus Lygisaurus, a group of small, ground-dwelling skinks from mesic habitats in New Guinea and eastern Australia (Ingram and Covacevich, 1988). The reason for the reallocation was the realization that the species lacked the one uniquelyderived character of Menetia (supraoculars two instead of three or four) and its similarity to Lygisaurus burnettii. On re-examining a longknown but undescribed species of small skink from northeastern Queensland which closely resembles M. timlowi, I came to the conclusion that these two species are probably more closely related to Menetia than to Lygisaurus. Quite recently a single specimen of a second undescribed species also closely resembling M. timlowi has been discovered in the collections of the Queensland Museum. The purpose of this paper is to update the generic diagnoses of Lygisaurus and Menetia and to describe the two new species of Menetia. I also take the opportunity to provide some general notes on reproduction and habitat in three species of Menetia. MATERIALS AND METHODS The paravertebral scales were counted from the first scale falling wholly outside of an imagetia is a group of small, ground-dwelling i ks o curring in arid, semi-ari , and seasonl dry habi ats in Australia. Six species are rently recognized in the genus. Recently, a ecies originally described as M. timlowi by ram (1977), was realloca ed to the genus Lyisaurus, a group of small, ground-dwelling inary line drawn along the posterior edge of the thighs held perpendicular to the long axis of the body forward to and including the anteriormost nuchal. The supraand subdigital scales were counted on the fourth toe of the pes beginning in the former case with the first scale wholly on the toe, and in the latter case with the first transversely enlarged scale wholly on the toe. The posteriormost supraciliary was taken as the scale just lateral to the suture between the posteriormost supraocular and the anteriormost pretemporal. Nuchals were all the transversely enlarged paravertebral scales just posterior to the parietals. The presacral vertebrae were counted on X-rays. Limb length was measured along the posterior edge of the outstretched limb and including the claw. The polarity of character states was inferred by reference to the successively more distant outgroups: Eugongylus, the most generally primitive taxon in the Eugongylus group; southeast Asian Mabuya, the most generally primitive lygosomines, and Eumeces, the most generally primitive scincid (Greer, 1979). DIAGNOSES OF LYGISAURUS AND MENETIA B th Lygisaurus and Menetia are members of the Eugongylus group of lygosomine skinks (Greer, 1979), and both show the following derived character states vis a vis this group: supranasals absent; frontoparietals fused; postsupralabial single; external ear opening small; 268 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.243 on Thu, 06 Oct 2016 04:55:39 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms