BREVIORA Mmiseiiiiim of Connparative Zoology Cambridge, Mass. 17 November, 1967 Number 275 A NEW SCiNCID LIZARD FROM THE NORTHERN SOLOMON ISLANDS Allen E. Greer and Fred Parker' During a term of duty by Parker (1962-1963) and a subse-quent ( 1966) collecting trip by him to Bougainville and neighbor-ing islands in the extreme northern Solomon Islands, a previously undescribed species of skink was discovered on Bougainville and Shortland Islands. A single specimen of the new species from Choiseul is also known but has previously been reported in the hterature as Sphenomorphus solomonis (Burt and Burt, 1932:544). On the basis of current, but not necessarily phylogenetically correct, generic concepts, the new species is assigned to the genus Sphenomorphus and may be known as Sphenomorphus tanneri-new species Holotype: Museum of Comparative Zoology 76551; collected by Fred Parker at Kunua, Bougainville, on 8 June 1963. Pamtxpes (423 specimens) :"nORTHERN BOUGAINVILLE: KUNUA (100 feet above sea level): MCZ 76483, 76484, 22.vi, ll.vii.l962; MCZ 76486-76487, 25-30.xii.1962; MCZ 76488-76550. 76552-76623. 77308-77361, 78091, 78299, 84140, + 2 untagged specimens, 12.v-29.vii.l963; MELILUP {ca. 3000 feet a.s.l.)^ MCZ 89593. 92295, 92326-92339, 92366-92368, 12-20.V.1966; MUTAHI (2700 ± 500 feet a.s.l.): MCZ 87570-87577, 88799, 89102-89126, 89594, 91430-91437. 92203-92228, 92269-92294, 92296-92302, 92304-92325, 92340-92365, 92372-92377, 9-20.V.1966; RAMAZON RIVER (1600-2400 feet a.s.l.): ^ Department of District Administration, Kimdiawa, Territory of New Guinea. "The new species is named for Charles Tanner, Honorary Curator of Reptiles at the National Museum, Melbourne, who introduced one of us (Parker) to reptiles several years ago and has since helped in many ways.
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