#robertcooki

ABSTRACT For decades it has been known that species diversity in Australia’s lizards has been severely underestimated (Wells and Wellington, 1983, 1985). In the case of the well-known Copper-tailed Skink Ctenotus taeniolatus (White, 1790), with a type locality of New South Wales, this putative taxon occurs from Victoria to North Queensland, along the coast, ranges and nearby slopes. Wells and Wellington formally named Ctenotus miowera from the town with the same name, which is between Proserpine and Bowen, north Queensland in 1985. But as for most other skinks formally named by the pair in that paper, a group known as the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves has done an excellent job at forcing most other publishing herpetologists to pretend that the works of Wells and Wellington did not exist and likewise that the taxa they identifi ed did not exist either. At least one species formally identifi ed by Wells and Wellington (1985), being resurrected from earlier synonymy, has now become extinct arising from the anti-science suppression actions of the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves (Hoser 2019a, 2019b). Relying on inspection of living and dead specimens and the molecular study of Colgan et al. (2009), this paper formally recognizes Ctenotus miowera as a valid species and formally names another related species in the complex as C. robertcooki sp. nov. being from the New England Region of northern New South Wales and with a divergence of 1.75 MYA or more from the nominate form of C. taeniolatus. Keywords: Taxonomy; nomenclature; Australia; Queensland; New South Wales; New England; lizard; skink Copper-tailed skink; Ctenotus; taeniolatus; miowera; new species; robertcooki.

Hoser, R. T. 2022. The Iconic Australian Copper-tailed Skink Ctenotus taeniolatus (White, 1790) split. A sign of severely under-estimated species diversity in Australia’s smaller lizards. LSIDURN:LSID:ZOOBANK.ORG:PUB:509BFFCA-6759-4105-8BB4-A532E2285BF0 Australasian Journal of Herpetology 59:17-20. Published 15 August 2022. ABSTRACT For decades it has been known that species diversity in Australia’s lizards has been severely underestimated (Wells and Wellington, 1983, 1985). In the case of the well-known Copper-tailed Skink Ctenotus taeniolatus (White, 1790), with a type locality of New South Wales, this putative taxon occurs from Victoria to North Queensland, along the coast, ranges and nearby slopes. Wells and Wellington formally named Ctenotus miowera from the town with the same name, which is between Proserpine and Bowen, north Queensland in 1985. But as for most other skinks formally named by the pair in that paper, a group known as the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves has done an excellent job at forcing most other publishing herpetologists to pretend that the works of Wells and Wellington did not exist and likewise that the taxa they identifi ed did not exist either. At least one species formally identifi ed by Wells and Wellington (1985), being resurrected from earlier synonymy, has now become extinct arising from the anti-science suppression actions of the Wolfgang Wüster gang of thieves (Hoser 2019a, 2019b). Relying on inspection of living and dead specimens and the molecular study of Colgan et al. (2009), this paper formally recognizes Ctenotus miowera as a valid species and formally names another related species in the complex as C. robertcooki sp. nov. being from the New England Region of northern New South Wales and with a divergence of 1.75 MYA or more from the nominate form of C. taeniolatus. Keywords: Taxonomy; nomenclature; Australia; Queensland; New South Wales; New England; lizard; skink Copper-tailed skink; Ctenotus; taeniolatus; miowera; new species; robertcooki. Hard copies at: http://www.herp.net