Lygosoma punctata

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Lygosoma punctata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Sauria
Family: Scincidae
Genus: Lygosoma
Species: L. punctata
Binomial name
Lygosoma punctata
(Gmelin, 1799)
Synonyms

Riopa punctata

Lygosoma punctata is a species of skink found in India and Sri Lanka.

Contents

[edit] Description

Distance between the end of snout and the fore-limb about 2 to 2/3 of the distance between axilla and groin; snout obtuse; lower eyelid with an undivided semitransparent disc; supranasals entire, in contact with one another behind the rostral ; frontal longer than the frontoparietals and interparietal together; a pair of nuchals, rarely absent ; an enlarged temporal scale borders the outer margin of the parietal ; ear-opening about half as large as the eye-opening, with one or two minute lobules anteriorly ; 7 supralabials. the fifth below the middle of the eye, longer than the adjacent labials body covered with smooth subequa] scales, 24 or 20, rarely 28, round the body ; 62 to 76 down the middle of the hack ; marginal preanals slightly enlarged. The adpressed limbs fail to meet by nearly twice the length of the fore-limb ; digits long, fourth toe distinctly longer than the third; 11 to 14 keeled lamellae under the fourth toe. Tail thick at the base, a little longer than the head and body. Brown above and on the side. Each scale with a dark basal spot. in the young the spots are joined into 4 or 6 longitudinal lines down the back. A yellowish dorsolateral streak beginning on the canthus rostralis strongly marked in the young. Lower surfaces yellowish-white, uniform, or each scale with a black central dot; tail reddish in the young.[1]

"..Individuals are secretive and their presence was usually made known by the flash of the bright red tail. The red is present on the tails of all young and half grown specimens, but tends to become completely obsolete in adult animals. [..] In the young tha tail, save in the basal region, is unspotted and of a uniformshade of red. As they grow older, the caudal scales develop small spots (even those on the ventral surface) and gradually the red (sometimes pink) colouration disappears. In the young black spots are contiguous forming continuous lines. On the head the dots are carried forward to the snout but later tend to form a more or less symmetrical pattern on the head scales." (from TAYLOR 1950)

[edit] Distribution

Found in India and Sri Lanka mostly in hilly regions such as the Yelagiris, Nilgiris, Sivagiris, Shevaroy Hills, Nilambur, Madurai, Cuddapah, Salem, Belgaum, Godavari districs. Chaibassa, Bilaspur, Rewa, Allahabad, Hazara, Meerut, Subathu (Simla).[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Smith, M. A. 1941. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.


[edit] References

  • Boulenger, George A. 1890 The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor & Francis, London, xviii, 541 pp.
  • Taylor, Edward H. 1950 Ceylonese lizards of the family Scincidae. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 33 (2): 481-518


[edit] External links

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