Ablepharus Deserti) from the Double Tail Was Not Collected and Preserved

Home , Ablepharus, Desert lidless skink, Plestiodon inexpectatus

WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 189 23(3):171–172 • DEC 2016

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES Tail. ChasingBifurcation Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: in a Desert Lidless Skink On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: (AblepharusA Hypothetical Excursion ...... deserti) from KyrgyzstanRobert W. Henderson 198

RESEARCH ARTICLES Daniel Jablonski . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 Department of Zoology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkoviˇcova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia ([email protected]) . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

CONSERVATION ALERT he Desert Lidless. World’s Skink Mammals (Ablepharus in Crisis ...... deserti Strauch ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 T1868) is one of. Theten “Dow currently Jones Index” ofrecognized Biodiversity ...... species in ...... 225 the poorly known genus Ablepharus (family Eugongylidae; HUSBANDRY Hedges 2014), which occur collectively from central Europe . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ...... Shannon Plummer 226 and the Middle East to central Asia and northwestern India (Sindaco and JeremˇcenkoPROFILE 2008). The Desert Lidless Skink . is a small, ground-dwelling,Kraig Adler: Adiurnally Lifetime Promoting active Herpetology lizard ...... distrib- Michael L. Treglia 234 uted in Turkmenistan,COMMENTARY Uzbekistan, southeastern Tajikistan, and southern and southeastern. The Turtles Have Kazakhstan Been Watching Me and ...... Kyrgyzstan. Eric Gangloff 238 This species is relativelyBOOK common, REVIEW and it is ecologically plas- tic with the ability to. surviveThreatened in Amphibians various of thehabitats. World edited Jeremˇcenko by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, and Sˇcerbak (1986) presentedR. Berridge, additional P. Ramani, and B.E.information Young ...... about Robert Powell 243 morphology, distribution, and general biology.  CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ...... 245 On 5 May 2015, NATURAL I found HISTORY an adult RESEARCH female A REPORTS. deserti: bask Summaries- of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247 ing in grassy habitat NEWBRIEFS to the east ...... of Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan ...... 248  EDITORIAL INFORMATION ...... 251 (40.93748°N, 73.03702°E, FOCUS ON WGS84, CONSERVATION 956 m: A elev.; Project YouFig. Can 1A) Support ...... 252 with a tail bifurcated posteriorly with the new segment the same length as the original tail (~18 mm). Total length of the individual was 90 mm (SVL 46 mm), the tail measured 44 mm. Based on pattern, shape, and Frontscalation, Cover. Shannon the left Plummer. bifurca- Back Cover. Michael Kern tion appeared to be original (Fig. 1B).Totat The et velleseque lizard audant was moin good Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil condition without other deformitieserspienimus, or injuries. quos accullabo.The presence Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus of a double tail does not seem to haveaut dolor affected apicto invere its welfare. pe dolum As aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque far as I know, no other previously observedmoditia erere cases nonsedis of ma tail sectiatur bifur - moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- cation have been reported for this genusma derrovitae or species. voluptam, asNone quos of tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. the other 30 adults I observed and examined at that locality on the same day had regenerated tails. The lizard with the Fig. 1. An adult female Desert Lidless Skink (Ablepharus deserti) from the double tail was not collected and preserved. vicinity of Jalal-Abad (Kyrgyzstan) with a bifurcated tail (A); close-up of Tail bifurcation and related malformations occur in spe- the tail of the same individual (B). Photographs by the author. cies that exhibit tail autotomy (some salamanders and lizards) and are relatively common (Smith 1946). Reports of this tail bifurcation has been recorded in the genera Eutropis, phenomenon for many species of lizards have been published Liopholis, Mabuya, Plestiodon, and Trachylepis (e.g., Brindley (e.g., Martins et al. 2013), including species in the family 1898; Hickman 1960; Mitchell et al. 2012; Vrcibradic and Scincidae, to which lizards in the family Eugongylidae were Niemeyer 2013 and literature therein). However, detailed previously assigned (Hedges 2014). Vrcibradic and Niemeyer data regarding frequencies of occurrence are not available. (2013) reported the frequency of tail bifurcation as a conse- quence of regeneration in natural populations of two species Literature Cited of the genus Mabuya to be 1.7 % (3 of 178 specimens) and Brindley, H.H. 1898. Some cases of caudal abnormality in Mabuya carinata and 1.2 % (1/83), respectively. In skinks (Scincidae sensu lato), other lizards. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 11: 680–689.

Hedges, S.B. 2014. The high-level classification of skinks (Reptilia, Squamata, Mitchell, J.C., W. McDaniel, and J. McDaniel. 2012. Plestiodon inexpectatus Scincomorpha). Zootaxa 3756: 317–338. (Southwestern Five-lined Skink). Bifurcation. Herpetological Review 43: 650 Hickman, J.L. 1960. Observations on the skink lizard Egernia whitii (Lacépède). Sindaco, R. and V.K. Jeremˇcenko. 2008. The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic. Papers of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 94: 111–118. 1. Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Turtles, Crocodiles, Jeremˇcenko, V.K. and N.N. Sˇcerbak. 1986. Ablepharidnye jashchritsy fauni SSSR i Amphisbaenians and Lizards of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central soprede’nykh stran. Akademia Nauk Kirgiskoi S.S.R. Izdate’stvo Ilim, Frunze. Asia. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina, Italy. Martins, R.L., P.G. Peixoto, P.H.M. Fonseca, A.G. Martinelli, W.R. Silva, and Smith, H.M. 1946. Handbook of Lizards of the United States and Canada. Cornell A. Pelli. 2013. Abnormality in the tail of the collated lizard Tropidurus gr. University Press, Ithaca, New York. torquatus (Iguania, Tropiduridae) from Uberaba City, Minas Gerais State, Vrcibradic, D. and J. Niemeyer. 2013. Mabuya frenata, M. macrorhyncha. Tail Brazil. Herpetology Notes 6: 369–371. bifurcation. Herpetological Review 44: 510–511.

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