A new species of Lygosoma (Squamata: Sauria: Scincidae) from the Central Truong Son, Vietnam, with notes on its molecular phylogenetic position

Abstract

A new Lygosoma species is described from the Central Truong Son (Annamite mountain range) of Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. The description is based on a single female specimen, collected during the dry season in the karst forest of Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park. The new Lygosoma differs from any other congener by the dorsal scales with pseudokeels in combination with a pair of frontoparietals; a scaly lower eyelid; seven supralabials; seven infralabials; 32 midbody scale rows; 66 middorsal (paravertebral) scales; smooth ventral scales, arranged in 81 transverse rows; 108 smooth, not enlarged median subcaudal scales; the fourth toe with 14 keeled subdigital lamellae; a reddish brown to brownish black dorsum and an orange-yellowish to greyish ventral side in life; as well as greyish black edged sutures of anterior supra- and infralabials. The new Lygosoma species is the third karst-adapted scincid species that has been described from Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park since 2005. A first molecular positioning of the new species within the genus Lygosoma is given as well as a key to the Vietnamese Lygosoma species.