Abstract
Recent rapid-assessment surveys in western New Guinea have provided well-documented voucher specimens that show greater speciation within the Carlia fusca complex in this area than indicated by the examination of older museum specimens. Variation in the morphometric and scalation traits of these new species does not differ greatly from other fusca complex species. This result was anticipated owing to the overall low level of variation in these morphological features in the fusca complex. Regionalization of distinct color patterns and abrupt shifts from one pattern to another indicate the existence of a distinct species along much of the southern coast from the Eilanden River basin to Etna Bay and another species from the northern coast of the Bomberai Peninsula. The variation and distribution of fusca complex species are examined for populations in the southern and western “mainland” Papua-Indonesia.References
Allison, A. (1996) Zoogeography of amphibians and reptiles of New Guinea and the Pacific region. In: Keast, A. & Miller, S.E. (Ed.), The Origin and Evolution of Pacific Island Biotas, New Guinea to Eastern Polynesia: Patterns and Processes. SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam, pp. 407–436.
Allison, A. & Kraus, F. (2003) A new species of Austrochaperina (Anura: Microhylidae) from northern Papua New Guinea. Journal of Herpetology, 37, 637–644.
Boulenger, G. (1914) An annotated list of the batrachians and reptiles collected by the British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 20, 247–265, pl. XXVII–XXX.
Brown W.C. (1991) Lizards of the genus Emoia (Scincidae) with observations on their evolution and biogeography. Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, 15, i–vi, 1–94.
Kraus, F. & Allison, A. (2005) A colorful new species of Albericus (Anura: Microhylidae) from southeastern Papua New Guinea. Pacific Science, 59, 43–53.
Pigram, C.J. & Davies, P.J. (1987) Terranes and the accretion history of the New Guinea orogen. BMR Journal of Australian Geological and Geophysic, 10, 191–211.
Shea, G.M. & Greer, A.E. (2002) From Sphenomorphus to Lipinia: generic reassignment of two poorly known New Guinea skinks. Journal of Herpetology, 36, 148–156.
Zug, G.R. (2004) Systematics of the Carlia “fusca” lizards (Squamata: Scincidae) of New Guinea and nearby islands. Bishop Museum Bulletins in Zoology, 5, i–viii, 1–83.
Zweifel, R.G. (2000) Partition of the Australopapuan microhylid frog genus Sphenophryne with descriptions of new species. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 253, 1–130.