identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
EF1BEF71871B51E3B70980AC77BF33F2.text	EF1BEF71871B51E3B70980AC77BF33F2.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Sphenomorphus puhoatensis Pham & Pham & Ong & Le & Ziegler & Nguyen 2026	<div><p>Sphenomorphus puhoatensis sp. nov.</p><p>Figs 5, 6, Table 2</p><p>Material examined.</p><p>Holotype. • ♂ IEBR R.6466 (Field number PH NA 2025.86), collected on 28 June 2025 by A. V. Ong, T. Q. Phan, and N. H. Nguyen in the evergreen forest (19°71'347"N, 104°83'748"E, at an elevation of 1071 m a. s. l.), within Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, Nghe An Province, Vietnam .</p><p>Diagnosis.</p><p>The new species can be distinguished from other species of Sphenomorphus by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: size medium (SVL 38.5 mm); primary temporals two; external ear openings present, without lobules; loreals two; supralabials six; infralabials six; enlarged nuchals in one pair; midbody scales in 28 rows; dorsal scales smooth, in six rows across the back; paravertebral scales 61, not widened; ventral scales in 56 rows; seven smooth lamellae beneath finger IV and 12 or 13 beneath toe IV; toes not reaching to fingers when limbs adpressed along body; dorsal surface of body and tail bronze brown with a discontinuous dark vertebral stripe, from middle of neck to tail base; a black stripe, two scales wide, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail middle.</p><p>Description of holotype.</p><p>Size medium (SVL 38.5 mm), tail tip lost (TaL 48.4 mm); head longer than wide (HL 6.6 mm, HW 4.9 mm); for further measurements see Table 2; snout obtuse, round anteriorly; rostral wider than high, distinctly visible from above; supranasals absent; frontonasal wider than long, in contact with rostral, nasals, postnasals, and prefrontals; prefrontals not in contact with each other; frontal narrowing posteriorly, about 1.3 times longer than the distance to the tip of snout, in contact with prefrontals, first to third supraoculars, and frontoparietals; frontoparietals in contact with each other, and bordered by frontal, three posterior supraoculars, parietals, and interparietal; interparietal lozenge-shaped with a small transparent spot in posterior angle; parietals in contact posteriorly, posterolateral border surrounded by seven scales; enlarged nuchals in one pair; nostril in center of nasal; postnasal single; loreals two, posterior loreal in contact with anterior loreal, anterior supraciliary, preocular, and second supralabial; preocular single; presuboculars 1 / 3, posterior scale in contact with second and third supralabials; supraciliaries seven, first largest, first to third in contact with first supraocular, posterior portion of third to fourth in contact with second supraocular, fifth to sixth in contact with third supraocular, posterior portion of sixth to seventh in contact with fourth supraocular; supraoculars four, third widest, fourth supraocular followed by two small scales; postoculars two; postsuboculars three; primary temporals two, lower one in contact with fifth and sixth supralabials, upper one very small; secondary temporals two, upper one very large, overlapped by lower one, in contact with parietal; lower eyelid scaly, separated from supralabials by a row of small scales; supralabials six, fifth enlarged, fourth below the eye; infralabials six, first very small; external ear openings nearly round, smaller than eye length, without lobules; tympanum sunk; mental wider than long, round anteriorly, in contact with anterior infralabial on each side and postmental; postmental undivided, in contact with mental, first and second infralabials, and anterior pair of chin shields; three pairs of chin shields, anterior pair in contact with each other anteriorly, second pair separated from each other by a gular scale, and posterior pair separated from each other by three scales; midbody scales in 28 rows; dorsal scales smooth, subequal to lateral and ventral scales, 1 / 2 + 6 + 1 / 2 scale rows between dark stripes on upper lateral zones; paravertebral scales 61, not widened; ventrals smooth, in 56 rows; precloacals four, inner scales overlapping outer ones, medial two enlarged, right scale overlapped by left scale; tai thick at base, median subcaudals on posterior part of tail slightly widened. Limbs well developed, pentadactyl; third and fourth fingers equal in length; subdigital lamellae smooth, 7 / 7 under fourth finger and 13 / 12 under fourth toe; toe and finger separated when adpressed along body, adpressed forelimb reaching to the position between tympanum and eye.</p><p>Coloration in preservative.</p><p>Dorsal surface of body and tail bronze brown with a discontinuous dark vertebral stripe, from middle of neck to tail base; a black stripe, two scales wide, running from nostril to eye and extending from posterior margin of eye along upper part of flank and tail middle, interrupted by small light spots from behind the neck, paler in posterior part of tail; supralabials and infralabials with dark bars on sutures; lateral side of the head and flank light brown, with dark spots; upper of limbs brown with light spots; chin, throat, venter, tail base, underside of fore and hind limbs cream; underside of tail with very small grey-brown dots. For coloration in life see Fig. 5.</p><p>Distribution.</p><p>Sphenomorphus puhoatensis sp. nov. is currently known only from the type locality in Nghe An Province, Vietnam (Fig. 1).</p><p>Natural history.</p><p>The type specimen was collected at 21: 00, on the ground, in a forest path. The surrounding habitat was evergreen forest composed of large, medium and small hardwoods mixed with shrubs (Fig. 7). Air temperatures ranged from 23.4–28.6 ° C and relative humidity was 85–93 % at the sites. Other reptile species encountered at the sites included Physignathus cocincinus Cuvier; Hebius sp.; Pareas hamptoni (Boulenger); Pareas margaritophorus (Jan); and Trimeresurus cf. stejnegeri Schmidt.</p><p>Etymology.</p><p>The specific name “ puhoatensis ” is derived from Pu Hoat Nature Reserve, the type locality of the new species in Nghe An Province, Vietnam. For the common names, we suggest Pu Hoat Forest Skink (English) and Th ằn l ằn phê-nô pù ho ạt (Vietnamese).</p><p>Comparisons.</p><p>We compared the new species with other known taxa in the genus Sphenomorphus from Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, southern China, Cambodia, Thailand, and Peninsular Malaysia. Morphological comparisons were based on data from the following literature: Duméril and Bibron (1839), Boulenger (1890), Van Denburgh (1912), Smith (1924, 1935), Taylor (1963), Eremchenko (2003), Nguyen et al. (2010, 2011, 2013, 2018), Grismer and Quah (2015), Sumarli et al. (2016), Grismer et al. (2019, 2020), Le et al. (2020), Bragin et al. (2025), and Pham et al. (2026).</p><p>Sphenomorphus puhoatensis sp. nov. differs from S. annamiticus (Boettger) by having more midbody scale rows (28 vs 24), fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 17–19), and fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 11–14); from S. anomalopus (Boulenger) by having fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 38) and a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 70 mm); from S. bacboensis (Eremchenko) by having fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 30–32), fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 14–17), and more supraciliaries (8 vs 6); from S. buenloicus by having fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 32–34), fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 16–19), more anterior temporals (2 vs 1), and a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 56 mm); from S. cameronicus Smith by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 70 mm) and fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 38); from S. cryptotis Darevsky, Orlov &amp; Ho by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 58–79 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 32–38), fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 17–23), and fewer paravertebral scale rows (61 vs 71–89); from S. grandisonae Taylor by having a larger size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 30.0 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 34), and the presence of enlarged nuchals (vs absent); from S. helenae Cochran by having fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 30) and the presence of an interrupted lateral stripe (vs continuous); from S. incognitus (Thompson) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 80–103 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 36–40), fewer paravertebral scale rows (61 vs 67–80), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 19–24); from S. indicus (Gray) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 61–90 mm), fewer paravertebral scale rows (61 vs 65–77), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 16–20); from S. lineopunctulatus Taylor by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 84 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 38), and fewer paravertebral scale rows (61 vs 76); from S. maculatus (Blyth) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 62 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 38–42), fewer paravertebral scale rows (61 vs 69–78), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 18–21); from S. malayanus (Doria) by having fewer ventral scales (56 vs 74) and fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 76–80); from S. mimicus by having fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 30), fewer supraciliaries (8 vs 9), and few lamellae under fourth toe (12 or 13 vs 16); from S. orientale (Shreve) by having more midbody scale rows (28 vs 24–26) and fewer ventral scales (56 vs 69–71); from S. praesignis (Boulenger) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 109 mm) and fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 12–15); from S. phuquocensis Grismer, Nazarov, Bobrov &amp; Poyarkov by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 60 mm), more midbody scale rows (28 vs 23), fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 14), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 18 or 19); from S. preylangensis Grismer, Wood, Quah, Anuar, Poyarkov, Thy, Orlov, Thammachoti &amp; Seiha by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 51.4–87.6 mm), more midbody scale rows (28 vs 24), fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 11–14), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 17–19); from S. sanctus (Duméril &amp; Bibron) by having a fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 71), fewer supraoculars (4 vs 5), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 26–27); from S. scotophilus (Boulenger) by having fewer supraoculars (4 vs 5) and fewer lamellae under fourth toe (12 or 13 vs 22–23); from S. senja Grismer &amp; Quah by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 60–65 mm), fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 72–73), and fewer ventral scale rows (60–67 vs 68); from S. shelfordi (Boulenger) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 67 mm) and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 28–29); from S. stellatus (Boulenger) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 80 mm), more midbody scale rows (28 vs 24) and the absence of two enlarged vertebral scale rows (vs present); from S. sungaicolus Sumarli, Grismer, Wood, Ahmad, Rizal, Ismail, Izam, Ahmad &amp; Linkem by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 67–90 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 39–44), fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 72–81), and fewer ventral scale rows (56 vs 74–86); from S. tersus (Smith) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 90–92 mm) and two loreals (vs three); from S. tetradactylus (Darevsky &amp; Orlov) by having more midbody scale rows (28 vs 20), more paravertebral scales (61 vs 47), more ventral scales (56 vs 50), more lamellae under fourth toe (12 or 13 vs 10), forelimb pentadactyl (vs tetradactyl), and the presence of external ear openings (vs absent); from S. tridigitus (Bourret) by having more midbody scale rows (28 vs 18–20), more paravertebral scales (61 vs 52), more ventral scales (56 vs 52), more lamellae under fourth toe (12 or 13 vs 7 or 8), forelimb pentadactyl (vs tridactyl), and the presence of external ear openings (vs absent); from S. tritaeniatus (Bourret) by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 47 mm), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 38), and fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 81); from S. valentinae Bragin, Geissler, Trofimets, Neang, Le, Nguyen &amp; Poyarkov by having fewer anterior temporals (2 vs 3), more infralabials (6 vs 4), more midbody scale rows (28 vs 18), more lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 5), more lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 6), and the presence of external ear openings (vs absent); from S. veunsaiensis (Geissler, Hartmann &amp; Thy) by having a larger size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 33.6–35.2 mm), more midbody scale rows (28 vs 20–22), more paravertebral scales (61 vs 51–53), more lamellae under fourth toe (12 or 13 vs 6), and the presence of external ear openings (vs absent); and from S. yersini Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen, Orlov &amp; Murphy by having a smaller size (SVL 38.5 mm vs 50–56 mm), more paravertebral scales (61 vs 50–55), more anterior temporal (2 vs 1), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 32–34), and fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 18–20).</p><p>Sphenomorphus puhoatensis sp. nov. is most similar to S. tamchucensis and S. tonkinensis in several aspects (i. e., body size, midbody scale rows, number of anterior temporals, lamellae under fourth toe and color pattern). However, the new species can be distinguished from S. tamchucensis by having fewer supralabials (6 vs 7), fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 8–10), and the presence of enlarged nuchals (vs absent). The new species differs from S. tonkinensis by having a smaller ratio of FIL / SVL (0.20 vs 0.24–0.26), fewer midbody scale rows (28 vs 32–34), fewer supraciliaries (8 vs 9), fewer paravertebral scales (61 vs 65–72), fewer lamellae under toe IV (12 or 13 vs 15–19), fewer lamellae under finger IV (7 vs 10–11), and fewer dorsal scale rows on back (6 vs 8).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/EF1BEF71871B51E3B70980AC77BF33F2	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Pensoft via Plazi	Pham, Anh Van;Pham, Cuong The;Ong, An Vinh;Le, Minh Duc;Ziegler, Thomas;Nguyen, Truong Quang	Pham, Anh Van, Pham, Cuong The, Ong, An Vinh, Le, Minh Duc, Ziegler, Thomas, Nguyen, Truong Quang (2026): Sphenomorphus puhoatensis (Squamata, Scincidae), a new skink from Nghe An Province, Vietnam. ZooKeys 1279: 167-186, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1279.188050
