A New Skink of the Genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 from Mid-Elevation Cloud Forests of Taiwan

Sphenomorphus taiwanensis Chen and Lue 1987 is a small species of skink endemic to mountains of central Taiwan ranging from medium to high elevations. We report on a new cryptic species of skink allied to S. taiwanensis from mid-elevation cloud forests of northern Taiwan. Sphenomorphus luelaiorum sp. nov. is superficially similar to S. taiwanensis, but can be easily distinguished from the latter by having a smaller adult body size, shorter limbs, narrower head with shorter snout, as well as by a significantly lower number of subdigital lamellae on fingers and toes and a lower number of transverse midbody scale rows. The new species is restricted to mid-elevations from 1,580 to 1,960 m above sea level inhabiting subtropical cloud forests and is parapatrically distributed with respect to S. taiwanensis, which is found in alpine habitats at higher elevations. Ecological niche modeling also demonstrated that the bioclimatic niches of two species do not overlap. Our study brings the number of species in the genus Sphenomorphus to 116; Sphenomorphus luelaiorum sp. nov. is the fourth species of Sphenomorphus recorded in Taiwan. Our study calls for further studies on diversity and evolutionary relationships of skinks in East Asia.