Sharma's mabuya (''Eutropis nagarjuni'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

skink Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. S ...

s found in India. It was described by Sharma (1969) from hills south of Vijaypuri on the right bank of the river Krishna in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

Description

This species can be distinguished from ''

Eutropis beddomei ''Eutropis beddomei'', commonly known as Beddome's mabuya or Beddome's skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is native to India and Sri Lanka. Etymology ''E. beddomei'' is named after Richard Henry Beddome, 1830-191 ...

'' by the supranasals which are separated by frontonasal (''E. beddomei'' has supranasal in contact with each other), separate prefrontals (''E. beddomei'' has prefrontals in contact with each other), three pairs of nuchals (''E. beddomei'' has single pair), presence of post nasal (''E. beddomei'' lacks it), dorsal scales with 5-7 keels (''E. beddomei'' has 3-5 keels), 16-22 lamellae beneath the fourth toe (''E. beddomei'' has 12-15 lamellae), and oval ear opening twice the size of the lateral scales (''E. beddomei'' has circular ear opening almost the size of the lateral scales). (Srinivasulu ''et al.'' 2005) Sharma (1969) described the colour as dark brown or black with white longitudinal stripes three on the back with the middle vertebral stripe. They become indistinct on the tail. The head scales have brown centres and light brown margins. the legs are dark brown above and the hind libs are sculpted with white above. The underside is white. Some specimens show an orangish-red stripe on either side of the neck that may be sex-specific trait.(Srinivasulu ''et al.'' 2005) The type specimen of the species was rediscovered in the collections of the Zoological Survey of India in 2007.(Srinivasulu & Das, 2007). The species has been found from a few more localities in Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh.

References

* Das I. 1991 A new species of Mabuya from Tamil Nadu State, Southern India (Squamata: Scincidae). Journal of Herpetology 25 (3): 342–344. *Srinivasulu, C., Bhargavi Srinivasulu & C.A. N. Rao (2005). Present status of ''Eutropis nagarjuni'' (Sharma, 1969) (Reptilia: Scincidae) – An endemic skink from Andhra Pradesh, India. Zoos' Print Journal 20(5): 1865–1866
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* Srinivasulu, C., Indraneil Das (2007) Rediscovery of the missing syntypes of ''Mabuya nagarjunii'' Sharma 1969 (Reptilia:Scincidae) in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 104(2):223-224

External links

* Srinivasulu, C., Bhargavi Srinivasulu & C.A. N. Rao (2006). Reptilian Fauna of Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, 106(3): 97–122. Eutropis Reptiles described in 1969 Taxa named by Ramesh Chandra Sharma Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{skink-stub