Meeting Abstract
A new species of scincid lizard in the genus Eugongylus is described from the islands of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean. It was first discovered in the late 1960s and initially identified as Eugongylus mentovarius, though more recent studies have recognized it as an undescribed species. The new species described here appears restricted to the Palauan archipelago. Using DNA sequence data from two mitochondrial genes, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2; 443 bp) and Cytochrome b (CYTB; 361 bp), we evaluate both intraspecific variation of the new species within the archipelago and its relationship to other Eugongylus species for which data is available (E. albofasciolatus, and E. rufescens). We also used morphological data to distinguish the new species from the five recognized species of Eugongylus: E. albofasciolatus, E. mentovarius, E. rufescens, E. sulaensis, and E. unilineatus. Using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods, we found two distinct but closely related mitochondrial lineages within Palau and also that the new species is more closely related to E. rufescens than to E. albofasciolatus. While the six species are morphologically similar, the new species can be diagnosed by a combination of its medium body size, dorsal coloration with small dark spots but lacking a distinct pattern of transverse bars, and tail length similar to snout–vent length. The description of this new species provides insight into genetic variation across the islands of Palau, as well as additional information on variation among other species in the genus Eugongylus.
