A new species of lowland skink (genus Lipinia Gray, 1845) from northeastern Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

A new species of scincid lizard, Lipinia sekayuensis sp. nov. from Hutan Lipur Sekayu, Terengganu State in northeastern Peninsular Malaysia is most similar to L. surda (Boulenger) but differentiated from it and all other species of Lipinia by having the combination of an adult SVL of 42.3 mm; six supralabials; five infralabials; four supraoculars; prefrontals widely separated; two loreals; fused frontoparietals; lower eyelids bearing a large, transparent disc; 21 midbody scale rows; 56 paravertertebral scale rows; 65 ventral scale rows; enlarged, precloacal scales; 10 subdigital lamellae on the third finger; 11, 15, and seven lamellae on the third, fourth, and fifth toes, respectively; distal subdigital lamellae keeled; a median row of slightly enlarged, subcaudal scales present; a generally unicolor, dark-brown dorsum bearing nine very faint, diffuse, darker stripes; and an external ear opening replaced by a scaly, auditory depression.

On the taxonomy and phylogeny of the skinks Lipinia sekayuensis Grismer, Ismail, Awang, Rizal, & Ahmad and Lipinia surda Boulenger from Peninsular Malaysia

“…Based on only a photograph of a specimen from the Gunung Panti Forest Reserve, Johor, in southern Peninsular Malaysia, we cannot unequivocally place it in either species. However, being that L. surda occurs on both sides of the Banjaran (=mountain range) Titiwangsa (Grismer 2011a;Grismer et al 2014) at Sungai Buloh in Kuala Lumpur and the islands of Tioman and Aur in the Seribuat Archipelago (Grismer 2011a,b), we tentatively consider this specimen as L. cf. surda (Fig.…”

“…Morphological analysis. Scale terminology follows Grismer et al (2009Grismer et al ( , 2014 and Lim (1998). All measurements were made by LLG to the nearest 0.1 mm using Mitutoyo digital calipers.…”

“…Recently, the genus has been shown to be a widely polyphyletic assemblage within the sphenomorphine tribe Sphenomorphini (Linkem 2013), and until a stable phylogenetic taxonomy is established for the tribe, the generic classification of the contents of Lipinia will remain unsettled. Grismer et al (2014) described Lipinia sekayuensis Grismer, Ismail, Awang, Rizal, & Ahmad from Hutan Lipur Sekayu, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia on the basis of a single specimen and in the absence of molecular and color pattern data from living material. They hypothesized that L. sekayuensis likely is most closely related to L. surda Boulenger based on the fact that both species lack an external ear opening and have a dull, nearly unicolor color pattern.…”

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

“…This is worrying because unsustainable development and other anthropogenic activities can affect the reptile species richness, particularly snakes (Gillespie et al 2015;Bauder et al 2020;Doherty et al 2020;Mohd Izam et al 2021). SLF had become the major source of new reptile species discoveries in Terengganu (Grismer et al 2014b(Grismer et al , 2018Sumarli et al 2016) This implied that the remaining intact forests in SLF and other riparian forested areas in Terengganu should be preserved so that some species are not loss before it was officially described (e.g., Grismer et al 2016;Nur Amalina et al 2017). The fact that SLF has two frequented localities by local visitors, the possibility of human-wildlife conflict between human and snakes is high.…”

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

“…Hulu Terengganu and its drainage systems are rapidly emerging to be extremely important areas of site-specific biodiversity in that new species are continually being discovered. Grismer et al (2014Grismer et al ( , 2016b described the skink Lipinia sekayuensis Grismer, Ismail, Awang, Rizal, & Ahmad and Sumarli et al (2016) described the skink Sphenomorphus sungaicolus Sumarli, Grismer, Wood, Ahmad, Rizal, Ismail, Izam, Ahmad, & Linkem from Hutan Lipur Sekayu. Additionally, Ng & Ahmad (2016) described a new genus and species of decopod (Gempala bilobata) from this drainage system.…”