Nessia deraniyagalai
| Nessia deraniyagalai | |
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| Species: | N. deraniyagalai
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| Nessia deraniyagalai Taylor, 1950
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Nessia deraniyagalai, commonly known as Deraniyagala's snake skink or Deraniyagala's nessia, is a species of limbless skink endemic to the island of Sri Lanka.
Etymology
The specific name, deraniyagalai, is in honor of Sri Lankan zoologist Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala.[1]
Habitat & distribution
N. deraniyagala is known only from dry northeastern Sri Lanka, where a single specimen was collected north of Trincomalee, near the shore, on a small hillock of about 10 m (33 ft) elevation.
Description
Scales in 20 rows at midbody. Paired loreals, the anterior much higher. Fronto-parietal broader than frontal. Lower eyelid movable. Five supralabials, the first long, the second under the orbit.
Dorsum brown, each scale with a dark brown spot, giving the appearance of longitudinal stripes. A blackish brown area above the eye that continues to top of snout.
References
- ^ Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Nessia deraniyagalai, p. 70).
External links
- http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Nessia&species=deraniyagalai
- http://eol.org/pages/458715/overview
- http://www.gbif.org/species/124789227
Further reading
- Taylor EH. 1950. Ceylonese Lizards of the Family Scincidae. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 33 (13): 481-518. (Nessia deraniyagalai, new species, pp. 516-518, Figure 8).