Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Telford, Sam R., Jr.

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Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyEarth and Planetary Science

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REPTILIA: SQUAMATA: SAURIA: SCINCIDAE80.1NEOSEPSN. REYNOLDSIMAP. The solid circle marks thll type-locality;open circlesindicate other localities, one of which is questioned (seeComment).Shadingestimatesthe total range.Living specimensvaryin colorationfromdirty whiteto deeptan,oftenbecomingdark brownafter preservation.At hatch-ing a wideblackbandextendsfromtail tip to snoutalongeachside. In olderlizardsthis bandmaybe reducedto spotsalongthe threelateral scalerows,or disappearsexceptfrom eyetosnout. Some specimenshave a dark spot on everyscaleofdorsumandventer.Thereis no significantsexualdimorphismin scalationor coloration.Burt (1937), Carr (1940), Smith (1946) and Carr andGoin (1959)provideddescriptionsof N. reynoldsi.• ILLUSTRATIONS.Sketchesof habitus and line drawingsof diagnosticcharacterswere presentedby Stejneger(1910)and Burt (1935), and were republishedin Smith (1946).Photographswereprovidedby Smith (1946), Pope (1955),A.Schmidt (1955),Conant (1958),andCarr and Goin (1959).Telford (1959)presenteddrawingsof limb osteology.• DISTRIBUTION.Neosepsreynoldsioccursin rosemaryscruband sandhillshabitatsin Lake, Polk and Highlandscounties,Florida. Recordsfrom Alachua and Dade countiesare erro-neousor questionable(see Comment). Telford (1962) pro-videda list of the localitieswhereNeosepshasbeencollected.• FOSSILRECORD.None.• PERTINENTLITERATURE.Carr (1940:77)presentedthe firstinformationon habitsandhabitatof Neoseps.Cooper (1953)and Telford (1959,1962)provideddetaileddiscussionsof its_ecology. Distribution and biogeographicsignificanceweretreatedby Neill (1957), Goin (1958) and Telford (1965).100...J MI.,ila KM.oIroCatalogueof AmericanAmphibiansandReptiles.TELFORD,SAMR., JR. 1969. NeosepsandN. reyn.oldsi.NeosepsreynoldsiStejnegerSandskinkNeosepsStejnegerSandskinkCOMMENTThe affinitiesof Neosepsto otherskink generaareunknown.Stejneger (1910:33) suggesteda probable relationship toSphenoscincus(=Ophiomorus)of the Middle East. How-ever,it is evidentthattherequirementsof fossorialexistenceinsurficiallayersof sandmakeit difficult to distinguishbetweenrelationshipand convergencein theseskinks. On the basisofsomeminor morphologicaland ecologicalsimilarities,Telford(1959:113)suggestederivationof Neosepsin centralFloridafromanancestralformsimilarto Eumecesegregius.• DESCRIPTIONS,ILLUSTRATIONS,DISTRIBUTION,FOSSILRECORD,andPERTINENTLITERATURE.SeeNeosepsreynoldsi.• ETYMOLOGY.The genericnameNeosepsis derivedfromGreekandLatin andmeans"newlizard."NeosepsStejneger,1910:33.Type species,NeosepsreynoldsiStejneger,1910,by monotypy.• CONTENT.One Recentspecies,N. reynoldsi,is recognized.• DEFINITION.A scincid genuswith moveableeyelids,thelowereyelidcontaininga transparentwindow;no externalearopening; supranasalspresent;no frontoparietals;nostril be-tweennasals; palatinebonesseparatedalongmedianline ofpalate; digits reducedto one on fore limbs and two on hindlimbs.Neosepsreynoldsi Stejneger,1910:34. Type locality "nearSpringLake, FruitlandPark, Lake County,Florida." Holo-type, U. S. National Museum42147,collectedby A. G.Reynoldsin March,1910.• CONTENT.No subspeciesarerecognized.• DEFINITION.The only knownspecies;seecharacterslistedforNeoseps.• DESCRIPTIONS.The scalesare smoothand shiny,in 14 to17 (mean16) rows. Prominentventrolateralkeelsarepresent,giving a flattenedappearanceto the venter. The flattenedventeris coveredby thefour ventralscalerows,andabouthalfof theventrolateralrows. The twomidventralrowsareslightlynarrowerthan theothers.The snoutis shovelshapedand thelowerjaw countersunk.The fore limbsareaboutone-thirdthelengthof thehindlimbs,andeachhasa singledigit. Two digitsare presenton eachhind limb, the largerdigit four timesthelengthof the smaller. A slight axillary depressionis present,intowhichtheforelimbsfit duringlocomotion.The rostralis broaderthanlong. Thereare two internasals,two nasals,and a single prefrontal,broaderthan long. Thefrontal is slightlylongerthanbroad,and the prominentinter-parietal is nearly equal in size to the parietals. The lorealextendsfrom thenasalinto the'orbit, its widthone-thirdof itslength. Thereare no preoculars,threesupraoculars,onesmallpostocular,and a single temporal. The supralabialsusuallynumber5-5,with III andIV enteringtheorbit. Six verysmallsupraciliaryscales,and four narrow subocularsare present(Stejneger,1910:34stated"no superciliaries").The mentalisbroaderthanlong. There areusually4-4infralabials,two un-dividedchinshields(posteriorlargest,bothbroaderthanlong),andtwogularplatesborderingtheinfralabials.The analplateis divided,and a singlerow of subcaudalsis enlarged.Maxi-mumsnout-ventlengthis 65 mm; hatchlinglengthis 24 mmsnout-vent.Unregeneratedtails comprise47 to 54 percentofthetotal length;themeansfor malesandfemales,respectively,are 50.5and 49.6percent.Regeneratedtails werepresentin69 percentof 135specimensexamined(Telford, 1959)., ..Morphologywasdescribedby Stejneger(910), Burt (937),Smith (946), Conant (958), Carr and Goin (959), andTelford (959). MyersandTelford (965) describedthefoodof Neosepsand Mount (963) comparedthe food of Neosepsand Eumecesegregius.Inquilinic protozoansof Neosepsweredescribedby Boveeand Telford 0962a, 1962b).• ETYMOLOGY.The namereynoldsihonorsthe collectoroftheholotype,A. G. Reynolds.• REMARKS.Myers and Telford (965) demonstratedthatNeosepshas a highly restricteddiet, composedprimarily ofbeetlelarvaeandtermites.Its well-definedmicrohabitatwithina relativelyxeric macrohabitatof limited geographicextentsuggestsa long history in centralFlorida, but this history isstill undocumentedby the fossil record. The distinctiveandlimited endoparasiticfauna of N. reynoldsi includes twoendemicflagellateprotozoans,MonocercomonasneosepsorumandRigidomastixscincorum(BoveeandTelford,1962a,1962b),andan undescribedspeciesof Thelandros(MyersandTelford,1965),a highlyhost·specificgenusof oxyuridnematodes.Theonlycomponentsof its parasiticfaunasharedwithotherspeciesof the communityare normally free·living hartmannellidamebasandectoparasitictrombiculidmites.COMMENTCitation of the occurrenceof Neosepsin Dade County,Florida shouldbe discontinued.No additionalspecimenshavebeenobtainedsince 1932despiteextensivecollecting(Duell-man and Schwartz,1958;Telford, 1959),and the habitatatthe reportedlocalityappearsunsuitablefor Neoseps(Telford,1962). Evidenceof Neosepsin Ocala National Forestwouldbe welcome,in viewof the rapiditywith which its habitatisbeingdestroyedin otherareas.LITERATURECITEDBovee,E. C., and S. R. Telford, Jr. 1962a. Protozoanin-quilines from reptiles. I. Monocercomonasneosepsorumn. sp. from the sandskink, NeosepsreynoldsiStejneger.Quart.J. FloridaAcad.Sci.25 (2) : 96-103.1962b. Protozoaninquilines from Florida reptiles. III.Rigidomastixscincorumn. sp.; Cercobodostilosomorumn. sp.; and Cryptobiageccorumn. sp. Ibid. 25 (3):180-191.Burt, C. E. 1935. A key to the lizardsof the United Statesand Canada.Trans. KansasAcad. Sci. 38: 25~05.1937. The lizardsof thesoutheasternUnited States.Ibid.40: 349-366.."80.2Carr, A. F., Jr. 1940. A contributionto the herpetologyofFlorida. Univ. Florida Publ., BioI. Sci. Ser.3 0): 1-118.Carr, A., and C. J. Goin. 1959. Reptiles,amphibians,andfresh-waterfishesof Florida. Univ. Florida Press,Gaines-ville. x +341p.Conant,R. 1958. A field guideto reptilesandamphibiansofthe United Statesand Canadaeastof the 100thmeridian.HoughtonMifflin Co., Boston.xviii +366p.Cooper,B. W. 1953. Noteson the life historyof the lizard,NeosepsreynoldsiStejneger.Quart.J. Florida Acad. Sci.16 (4) : 235-238.Duellman,W. E., and A. Schwartz. 1958. Amphibiansandreptiles of southernFlorida. Bull. Florida State Mus.3 (5): 181-324.Goin, C. J. 1958. Commentsuponthe origin of the herpeto-faunaof Florida.Quart.J. FloridaAcad.Sci.21 0): 61-70.Mount, R. H. 1963. The natulal history of the red·tailedskink, Eumeces egregius Baird. Amer. Midland Nat.70 (2) : 356-385.Myers,C. W., andS. R. Telford, Jr. 1965. Food of Neoseps,the Florida sandskink. Quart. J. Florida Acad. Sci. 28(2) : 190-194-Neill, W. T. 1957. Historical biogeographyof present·dayFlorida. Bull. Florida StateMus. 2 (7): 175-220.Pope, C. H. 1955. The reptileworld. Alfred A. Knopf Co.,NewYork. xxvi+326+xiii p.Schmidt, A. 1955. Der Floridanische Sandskink NeosepsreynoldsiStejneger.Aquar. u. Terrar. Zeitschr.8 0-2):299-300.Smith, H. M. 1946. Handbook of lizards. Lizards of theUnited States and of Canada. Comstock Publ. Co.,Ithaca.xxii +557p.Stejneger,L. 1910. A new genusandspeciesof lizard fromFlorida. Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus. 39 (773) : 33-35.Telford,S. R., Jr. 1959. A studyof thesandskink, NeosepsreynoldsiStejneger.Copeia1959(2): 110-119.1962. New locality recordsfor the sandskink (Neosepsreynoldsi)in centralFlorida,withcommentsonthehabitat.Quart.J. FloridaAcad.ScL 25 0) : 76-77.1965. Some biogeographicalaspects of the Floridianherpetofauna.ActaHerp.Japonica2 (2) : 16-21.SAMR. TELFORD,JR., GORGASMEMORIALLABORATORY,BALBOAHEIGHTS,CANALZONE.Puhlished20 June 1969by the AmericanSocietyof Ichthyol·ogistsandHerpetologists.Publicationis supportedby NationalScienceFoundationgrantG24231.Primaryeditorfor this account,ClarenceJ. McCoy...

Neoseps and N. reynoldsi

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Neoseps and N. reynoldsi

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