Dasia haliana
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| Dasia haliana (Haly & Nevill,1887) |
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Tree Skink Dasia haliana is a species of tree skink found in the southern Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.
[edit] Description
Snout pointed, longer than the orbit : supranasals not in contact with one another ; frontonasal about as long as broad ; prefrontals large, just separated from one another frontal rather narrow, as long as or shorter than the fronto-parietals and inter-parietal together; interparietal very variable in size, when large separating the parietals ; a pair of nuchals ; 4 supraoculars, second largest, first and second in contact with the frontal : 7 or 8 supraciliaries, first longer than the others; an anterior and a posterior loreal, both longer than high ; temporal scales a little larger than those on the sides of the neck ; ear-opening not one-quarter the size of the eye-opening, with crenate margin ; tympanum deeply sunk ; dorsal scales with 3 or 5 obtuse keels, the two vertebral series of scales broader than the others ; 24 scales round the body ; preanals slightly enlarged. Tail tapering to a fine point, as long as or a little shorter than the head and body, the median series of scales below transversely enlarged. Limbs rather short ; the adpressed limbs fail to meet or just overlap ; toes moderately long, 17 or 18 lamellae beneath the fourth toe ; palms of hands and soles of feet with flattish tubercles, heel with larger ones, larger in the male than in the female. Yellowish-olive above, with broad black cross-bars which are about as broad as their interspaces, 5 or 6 on the neck and body ; a black mark upon the occiput, extending forward as two streaks on the top of the head and two lateral ones through the eye to the nostril; yellowish below. In the young the black bars are more conspicuous. (Smith, 1935)
From snout to vent 80 mm.
[edit] References
- Smith, M. A. 1935. The Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Amphibia Vol II - Sauria. Taylor and Francis. London. (p. 278-279)
- Annandale, Nelson 1906 New and interesting lizards in the Colombo Museum. Spol. Zeyl. 3: 189-192
- Deraniyagala,P.E.P. 1931 Some Ceylon Lizards. Ceylon J. Sci. B, 16: 139-180
- Greer, Allen Eddy, Jr. 1970 The Relationships of the Skinks Referred to the Genus Dasia. Breviora 348:1-30
- Inger,R.F. & Brown, W.C. 1980 Species of the scincid genus Dasia Gray. Fieldiana Zool. 3: 1-11
- Joshua J; Sekar A G 1985 Range extension of the skink Dasia haliana (H. Nevill, 1887). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 82 (2): 422-423
- Karthikeyan S 1991 Sighting of the arboreal skink Dasia haliana at Mundanthurai Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 88 (1): 122-123
