Eremiascincus Greer, 1979

Mecke, Sven, Doughty, Paul & Donnellan, Stephen C., 2009, A new species of Eremiascincus (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) from the Great Sandy Desert and Pilbara Coast, Western Australia and reassignment of eight species from Glaphyromorphus to Eremiascincus, Zootaxa 2246, pp. 1-20 : 8-9

Eremiascincus Greer, 1979

Type species — Hinulia richardsonii Gray, 1845 , by original designation ( Greer 1979a).

Content. Eremiascincus , erected by Greer (1979a) to contain only two species ( E. fasciolatus and E. richardsonii ), is expanded to include the following species, formerly belonging to ‘Glaphyromorphus’: E. antoniorum (Smith, 1926) , comb. nov., E. brongersmai ( Storr, 1972) comb. nov., E. butlerorum (Aplin, How & Boeadi, 1993) , comb. nov., E. emigrans (Lidth de Jeude, 1895) comb. nov., E. douglasi ( Storr, 1967) comb. nov., E. isolepis ( Boulenger, 1887) comb. nov., E. pardalis ( Macleay, 1877) comb. nov., and E. timorensis ( Greer, 1990) comb. nov.

Diagnosis. The expanded Eremiascincus comprises small to medium-sized (SVL 44–125 mm) lygosomine skinks, which can be slender to robust; diurnal, crepuscular or nocturnal; terrestrial, fossorial or litter dwelling. No synapomorphy is known for this group, but it can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: parietal shields in contact behind the interparietal; prefrontals large, in contact or narrowly separated; supranasals absent and nasals undivided; frontoparietals paired; frontal much longer than prefrontals; SupraLab 6–8; 1 or 2 InfraLab in contact with postmental scale; lower eyelid movable, scaly; small or missing auricular granules (when present usually 4–5); SupCil 6–10; supraoculars 4; 4TLam 15–30; usually more than 24 MBSR; dorsal and caudal scales smooth or keeled, head scales smooth; limbs well developed, meeting or overlapping when adpressed (exceptions are E. pardalis from the woodlands and monsoon forests of Queensland and E. butlerorum from Sumba Island, Indonesia); fingers and toes 5; tail usually much longer than SVL; ear opening prominent; colour pattern variable, composed of either distinct crossbands, a reticulum, numerous spots or dashes and can include a dark lateral zone. All species are oviparous, but E. pardalis has been reported as egg laying ( Greer & Parker 1974) and live-bearing ( Rankin 1978).

Differentiation of Eremiascincus from Glaphyromorphus is possible with the exception of a few problematic species. Members of Eremiascincus usually share a higher number of MBSR than most Glaphyromorphus : Eremiascincus (> 24 MBSR) is separated from the elongated, slender G. cracens (20–22 MBSR), G. crassicaudis (20–22 MBSR), G. darwiniensis (20–22 MBSR), G. mjobergi (22 MBSR) and G. punctulatus (18–20 MBSR). Furthermore, these species have very short, widely separated limbs when adpressed, a condition rare among members of Eremiascincus . The exceptions are G. fuscicaudis and G. nigricaudis and both taxa may represent a basal lineage within Glaphyromorphus ( Greer 1979c, 1989). The presence of an ectopterygoid process, a small strut of bone in the secondary palate ( Greer 1979a, 1989) might be of taxonomic importance as well, but seems to be absent in some populations of E. fasciolatus and E. richardsonii ( Greer 1979a) . However, this character is not present in any member of Glaphyromorphus .

Little more is known about the relationships of the elongated, short-limbed G. clandestinus Hoskin & Couper, 2004 from Mt. Elliot in northeastern Queensland. In their description of G. clandestinus , the authors compared that species with four subgroups of ‘ Glaphyromorphus ’ suggested by Greer (1989), a concept we have not followed here. Morphological similarities with one of these groups (G. c r a c e n s, G. darwiniensis , ‘G’. gracilipes ) were apparent ( Hoskin & Couper 2004) based on two soft tissue and two osteological characters and superficial similarities with G. punctulatus were indicated. We leave G. clandestinus as a member of Glaphyromorphus until further evidence becomes available.