#emoia

by David and Kathy Barton

Photograph by Mala Adi Arul

Hoser, R. T. 2019. Eight new skink genera and 45 newly named species associated with Emoia Gray, 1845 sensu lato that reflects ancient divergence and recent speciation within the assemblage (Reptilia: Squamata). Australasian Journal of Herpetology 40:3-49. Published 10 July 2019. LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:88C0C262-ABA2-4878-80D9-F85838DB90DD ABSTRACT The lizard genus Emoia Gray, 1845 within the Lygosominae as recognized in 2019 contains about 80 recognized species. Morphological studies have long recognized various species groups (e.g. Brown 1991). More recent molecular studies show ancient divergences. In fact some of these groups are not even closely related to one another, but in fact occur some distance away in the Lygosominae sub familial tree (e.g. Pyron et al. 2013). Based on both morphological and molecular divergence as cited, seven new genera of skinks formerly placed within Emoia as currently recognized are formally named according to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999). Species in the new genera were mainly placed within the so-called E. samoensis group as defined by Brown (1991). The genus Emoa Girard, 1857, type species Emoa nigra, is resurrected for this divergent taxon, also previously placed in the E. samoensis group. The taxon also subdivided into 6 allopatric species. A subgenus for the taxon described as Emoia parkeri Brown, Pernetta and Watling, 1980 is also assigned as well as another subgenus for the species Emoia ponapea Kiester, 1982, the latter being within Emoia sensu stricto. The putative species originally described as Lygosoma stellatus Boulenger, 1900, more recently known as Sphenomorphus stellatus (Boulenger, 1900), is in fact not closely related to other Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 species at all. Instead the species group is closest to a clade treated as being within Emoia sensu lato, this being the so-called E. samoensis group. However it is divergent enough from that group to be formally placed in a newly named genus, giving a total of eight newly named genera of skinks associated with Emoia sensu lato. Furthermore, 45 obvious but previously unnamed species within relevant genera are also named according to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999) for the first time. There also remains further unrecognized and unnamed species within this assemblage. Keywords: taxonomy; nomenclature; lizards; subfamily; Lygosominae; skinks; genus; Emoia; Sphenomorphus; Emoa; Pacific; Asia; New Guinea; Fiji; Solomon Islands; Indonesia; Papua New Guinea; Malaysia; panopea; nigra; atrocostata; concolor; loyaltiensis; stellatus; new genus; Notanemoia; Cannotbeemoia; Silvaemoia; Griseolaterus; Aintemoia; Caeruleocaudascincus; Ventripallidusscincus; Shireenhoserscincus; new subgenus; Paraemoia; Aquilonariemoia; new species; kimaniadilboden; timdalei; karkarensis; tonylovelinayi; anggigidaensis; stefanbroghammeri; euanedwardsi; paulmulvanyi; martinmulvanyi; paulwoolfi; jamesbondi; richardwarneri; morriedorisioi; minusguttata; dorsalinea; bougainvilliensis; boreotis; aquacauda; yusufmohamudi; davidaltmani; stephengoldsteini; rodneysommerichi; roberteksteini; georgemariolisi; karlagambellae; cathysonnemannae; neilsonnemanni; robvalentici; dannygoodwini; latishadarwinae; stevebennetti; lucybennettae; clivebennetti; craigbennetti; brettbarnetti; williambennetti; kamahlbenneti; drubennetti; jaibennetti; danielbenneti; graysonoconnori; michaelguiheneufi; rosssadlieri; shireenhoserae; daranini. Full text at: http://www.smuggled.com/issue-40-pages-3-49.pdf