Leiolepis belliana (Gray, 1827)

Grismer, L. Lee, Neang, Thy, Chav, Thou, Wood, Perry L., Jr & Oaks, Jamie R., 2008, Additional Amphibians And Reptiles From The Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary In Northwestern Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia, With Comments On Their Taxonomy And The Discovery Of Three New Species, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 56 (1), pp. 161-175 : 170-171

Leiolepis belliana (Gray, 1827)

( Fig. 15 )

Material examined. – LSUHC 7955–66 , 7970–71 : Che Teal Chrum, 9–11 Aug.2006 .

Remarks. – Fourteen specimens (seven males, SVL 68–83 mm; seven females, SVL 61–103 mm) match Smith’s (1935) and Taylor’s (1963) diagnoses and descriptions of Leiolepis belliana belliana [thereby separating them from L. reevesi (Gray, 1831) and L. guttata Cuvier, 1829 ] from Thailand in having 7–12 scales across the undersurface of the tibia at the midline; ventral scales as broad as three or four dorsal scales; widely scattered light spots on the dorsum lacking black edges that do not form a dark, dorsal reticulum; and thin, cream- colored, vertebral and dorsolateral stripes. They differ from a series of L. belliana (LSUHC 4844–48, 4858–64, 6810, 6822, 6835–36, 6842, 6887, 7492, 7595) from northern West Malaysia near the type locality of Seberang Peri in having much smaller dorsal spots and thinner dorsal stripes; less blue on the head, neck, and forelimbs; the black bars on the flanks are wider than the orange bars instead of the reverse; and they lack an ontogenetic change in color pattern in that the complete striping pattern is retained into adulthood.

The only other report of Leiolepis from the Cardamom Mountains were sight records of L. reevesi (Swan & Daltry, 2002) from the vicinity of Aural Village in the northeastern Cardamoms. We collected an additional series of Leiolepis (LSUHC 7979–87, 8000–01) 46.5 km east of Che Teal Chrum and 165 km west of Aural Village from a mine field south of Pursat (12º18.632'N 103º31.677'E) that approach the colour pattern of L. reevesi in having slightly more enlarged dorsal spots and stripes and having only faint dark bars in the flanks. However, they match L. belliana in scale morphology ( Taylor, 1963). An additional collection (LSUHC 8003–08) was made further east at Tbeng (11º52.862'N 104º36.463'E) 165 km east of Che Teal Chrum and 43 km east of Aural Village that look even more like L. reevesi in having wider dorsal spots whose edges are fused in some places, even wider dorsal stripes, and less dark barring in the flanks. Scale morphology, however, still matches L. belliana . Based on this and additional material we examined from southern Vietnam (IEBR 1575–76; LSUDPC 1959, 2006), we suspect that L. belliana and L. reevesi may grade into one another across southern Cambodia and on into southern Vietnam, suggesting the two forms may be a single species as previously considered by Smith (1935) and Taylor (1963). Owing to the more northerly distribution of L. reevesi throughout southern China, Laos, and eastern Thailand (Chan-ard et al., 1999:134; Zhao & Adler, 1993), coupled with the variation reported here in populations from southern Cambodia, it is unlikely that L. reevesi occurs in the northeastern Cardamoms juxtaposed between two populations of L. belliana .

The specimens from Che Teal Chrum were collected by residents of the village, who use this species as a food source. Lizards were dug out of holes in open, grassy areas surrounding the village.

Figures

Fig. 15. Leiolepis belliana from Che Teal Chrum.