Two new species of the worm-like lizard Dibamus (Sauria: Dibamidae) with remarks on the distribution and ecology of Dibamus in Vietnam

February 1992 Asiatic Herpetological Research Vol. 4, pp. \Al\ Two New Species of the Worm-like Lizard Dibamus (Sauria, Dibamidae), with Remarks on the Distribution and Ecology of Dibamus in Vietnam ILYA S. DAREVSKY 1 ^Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia Abstract. -Within Vietnam and the southern part of China there dwell 5 species of worm-like lizards of the genus Dibamus, two of them (D. greeri sp. nov. and D. bogadeki sp. nov.) are new to science. Some new data on the distribution, ecology, morphology, coloration, as well as the structure of hemipenes and the autotomy and regeneration of the tail is given for the species studied. The specific peculiarities of the body and tail coloration in some dibamids may apparently draw the attention of birds of prey, and in connection with this are regarded as the manifestation of attractive coloration and as Batesian mimicry. Key words: Reptilia, Sauria, Dibamidae, Dibamus, China, Vietnam, ecology, taxonomy. Introduction According to the current data, the genus of worm-like lizards Dibamus Dumeril et Bibron, 1839 includes 9 species widely distributed on the mainland and on a number of big and small islands in Southeast Asia. As to the mainland part proper of this vast area, registered here were only 4 species of which D. alfredi is known mainly from the Malay Peninsula, and the three others (D. bourreti, D. montanus, and D. smithi) occur only within Vietnam (Greer, 1985). Dibamus bourreti was earlier reported from southern China (Liu and Hu, 1962) and recently was found in Hong Kong (Lazell and Lu, 1990). From 1982 to 1988, while conducting field herpetological investigations in different regions of mainland and insular Vietnam, the author collected some new material which considerably expands the former views on the distribution as well as the morphological characters and ecology of the genus Dibamus within that country. The results of the treatment of the material and the description of the new species are given below. Methods All in all, 12 individuals of the genus Dibamus were studied, mainly from Vietnam. They were taken by the author and his colleagues in the course of several Vietnamese-Soviet zoological expeditions from 1982 to 1988. Different species of the genus from other parts of its range were also examined for comparison. Measurements of snout-vent length (SVL) and tail length (TL) were made by adpressing the animals against a plastic rule taped horizontally to a bench top. All drawings were made under an "Opton" stereomicroscope with a camera lucida attachment. X-ray photos were taken with the Japanese apparatus "Softes". In the description of the elements of scuttelation, I mainly applied the terminology used by Greer (1985). The following acronyms were used: ZIN-Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (Leningrad); BM-British Museum Natural History; MNHP-Museum Natural History, Paris; IEMEM-Institute of Animal Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology, Moscow; MCZ-Museum of Comparative Zoology; ZMMU-Zoological Museum, Moscow State University; CAS-California Academy of Sciences. Species Accounts Dibamus bourreti Angel Figs. 1, 3, 4, 5, and 11. This species was described by Angel (1935) who had one specimen available from Tamdao, Vinhphu Province, northern © 1992 by Asiatic Herpetological Research

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Two new species of the worm-like lizard Dibamus (Sauria: Dibamidae) with remarks on the distribution and ecology of Dibamus in Vietnam

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