Russian Journal of Herpetology

Vol. 15, No. 3, 2008, pp. 225 228

THE RANGE EXTENSION OF GENUS Chalcides LAURENTI, 1768 (REPTILIA: SCINCIDAE) TO SRI LANKA

D. M. S. S. Karunarathna,1,2 L. J. M. Wickramasinghe,2 V. A. P. Samarawickrama,3 and D. A. I. Munindradasa4

Submitted May 3, 2007. Sri Lanka has 31 skink species belonging to seven genera. We describe here the first record of the genus Chalcides in the Island. The genus Chalcides is currently distributed from Europe to India. This work reports a range extension of this genus to Sri Lanka. Keywords: Chalcides, Range extension, Scincid lizards, Sri Lanka, Taxonomy.

INTRODUCTION With the latest discoveries of the four new skink lizards Eutropis tammanna Das, de Silva and Austin, 2008, Lankascincus greeri Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, 2007, Lankascincus munindradasai Wickramasinghe, Rodrigo, Dayawansa, and Jayantha, 2007, and Lankascincus sripadensis Wickramasinghe, Rodrigo, Dayawansa, and Jayantha, 2007, the skink fauna of Sri Lanka has a total of 31 species (Das et al., 2008; Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, 2007;Wickramasinghe et al., 2007), among them 24 species, and one subspecies are known to be endemic to the island. The skink lizards found in Sri Lanka fall in to the following Red List criterion, out of which two are critically endangered, nine endangered, two vulnerable, five near threatened and seven data deficient species (IUCN and MENR, 2007). The family Scincidae is represented by seven genera, where genus Chalcidoseps is a monotypic endemic genus, and genus Dasia is represented by a single species in the country (Deraniyagala, 1953). The endemic genus Lankascincus consists of ten species throughout the island (Batuwita and Pethiya1

goda, 2007; Wickramasinghe et al., 2007). The genus Lygosoma is represented by two species, out of which one is endemic to the island (Das, 2001; de Silva, 2006). Genus Eutropis consists of seven species, out of which four species and one sub species is endemic (Das et al., 2008). The endemic fossorial skink genus Nessia has eight species distributed within the island. Genus Sphenomorphus consists of two species out of which one is endemic. Among these skink species, 18 are nationally threatened (Bambaradeniya, 2001; De Silva, 2006; IUCN Sri Lanka, 2000). Within the island, skinks can be found in diverse habitats such as fossorial, terrestrial and arboreal (de Silva, 1994, 1996; Deraniyagala, 1953; Greer, 1991). NEW LOCATIONS AND HABITAT The isolated forest patch from which the new record is made is situated in the low country wet zone of Sri Lanka, between 644 646 N and 8006 8008 E (Fig. 1). The terrain is a large water shed area with an impressive backdrop of rocky-forested hills extending over 40 ha, in the Kalutara District (Somasekaran, 1988). It lies at an altitudes range of 200 to 300 m above sea level (Chamikara and Sumanarathna, 1999). A part of the above forest patch is owned by the Forest Department and the rest by the rubber plantation. The average annual rain fall is 3660 mm (mainly during the Southwest monsoon) while annual temperature is 29C (IUCN/FAO, 1997).

The Young Zoologists Association of Sri Lanka, Department of National Zoological Gardens, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka; E-mail: dmsameera@gmail.com. Herpetological Foundation of Sri Lanka, Thalarukkarama Road, Kudawaskaduwa, Waskaduwa, Sri Lanka; E-mail: boiga2000@gmail.com. No. 104, Bulawaththa, Gannoruwa, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka; E-mail: woodowl@gmail.com. Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka; E-mail: muni@ent.mrt.ac.lk.

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Fig. 2. Typical habitat of Chalcides cf. ocellatus.

Fig. 1. The locality of Chalcides cf. ocellatus. The red triangle shows the exact location.

This forest area is covered with high grown trees of 25 35 m in height and an undergrowth of occasional bamboo trees. According to Ashton (1997) and Gunatilleke, and Gunatilleke (1990) the forest vegetation can be categorized as, low land evergreen rain forest. This low land wet forest consists of dominant tree species such as Schumacheria castaneifolia, Artocarpus nobilis, Calophyllum inophyllum, Mangifera zeylanica, Humboldtia laurifolia, Oncosperma fasciculatum, and Canarium zeylanicum (Fig. 2). The general forest floor is covered with cascaded large boulders and leaf litter. According to our observation, between April and June months wet weather prevails while rest of the year is dry in this area. DISCUSSION The genus Chalcides comprises of 28 species differed mainly by their degree of limb reduction, body elongation and loreal pattern (Pasteur 1981; Greer et al., 1998; Greenbaum et al., 2006). Northern Africa is thought to be the center of evolution of this lineage (Caputo et al., 1999). The analysis of genetic variation within the C. ocellatus group, according to Caputo et al., (1999) suggests that it may actually contain six reproductively isolated species [C. ocellatus (southern and eastern Morocco, throughout the Mediterranean basin, central and southern Sahara, and eastern Africa to as far down as Pakistan), C. polylepis (western Morocco from

the Atlas mountains to the Atlantic coast), C. colosii (northwestern Morocco across the Rif mountains), C. montanus (northern Morocco, across the High and Middle Atlas mountains), C. parallelus (endemic to northeastern Morocco and northwestern Algeria), and C. bedriagai (endemic to the Iberian peninsula)] (Greenbaum et al., 2006; Pasteur, 1981). Genus Chalcides is represented by 2 species in South Asia, such as Chalcides ocellatus (Pakistan and India) and Chalcides pentadactylus (India) (Smith 1935; Das, 1994, 2001; Greenbaum et al., 2006; Greer et al., 1998). According to the following literature: Bambaradeniya (2001), Batuwita and Pethiyagoda (2007), Boulenger (1890) Das (1994, 2001), Das and de Silva (2005), Das et al. (2008), Deraniyagala (1953), de Silva (1994, 1995, 1996, 2006), Ferguson (1877), Gans (1995), Goonatilake et al., (1999) Goonewardene et al., (2006), Greer (1991), Gunther (1864), IUCN (2000), MFE (1999), Smith (1935), and Taylor (1950, 1953), Wickramasinghe et al. (2007), genus Chalcides has not been previously recorded in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the present sighting provides the distribution data of genus Chalcides extending the range in to Sri Lanka (Figs. 3 and 4). CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The discussed forest area needs protection since it is under heavy destruction due to illegal timber felling, clearing of forests for tea, rubber plantation, and also human settlements at the moment. The present work is the first record of genus Chalcides according to published literature in Sri Lanka. Further studies are underway to investigate the taxonomic status of Chalcides cf. ocellatus.

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Fig. 3. The dorsal view of body of Chalcides cf. ocellatus.

Fig. 4. The dorsolateral view of head of Chalcides cf. ocellatus.

Acknowledgments. The authors wish to thank Dr. Channa Bambaradeniya (IUCN The World Conservation Union) for reviewing the manuscript and Dr. Aurlien Miralles (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France), for giving us vital references. We would also like to thank Mr. Tiran Abeywardena, Mr. Panduka Silva and Members of the research committee of The Young Zoologists Association. Finally we also wish to thank Mrs. Nethu Wickramasinghe for proof reading the manuscript.

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