Ophiomorus maranjabensis Kazemi, Farhadi Qomi, Kami and Anderson

Kazemi, Seyed Mahdi, Qomi, Masood Farhadi, Kami, Haji Gholi & Anderson, Steven Clement, 2011, A new species of Ophiomorus (Squamata: Scincidae) from Maranjab Desert, Isfahan Province, Iran, with a revised key to the genus, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 5 (1), pp. 23-33 : 24

Ophiomorus maranjabensis Kazemi, Farhadi Qomi, Kami and Anderson urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C05969FC-3873-4667-AB03-9B531C3D0DDE

Holotype: ZMGU (Zoological Museum Gorgan University) 2570, an adult female from Maranjab , south of Daryache Namak, Iran, N 34°19’52.78”, E 51°53’20.44”. Collected 17 May 2011 by M. Farhadi and S. M. Kazemi.

Paratypes: ZMGU 2571 and 2572, adult females, from Maranjab, about 1 km southwest of holotype, N 34°18’56.50”, E 51°52’45.15” .

Diagnosis

An Ophiomorus with three fingers, three toes; distinctly enlarged nuchals; snout bluntly spatulate; interparietal broader than long; frontonasal septagonal; six supralabials, the fifth, greatly enlarged, below the eye. Parietals in contact behind interparietal; nuchals in contact behind parietals. Preocular very large, about two-thirds distance between eye and nostril, and in contact with third, fourth, and fifth supralabials. Twenty-two scales round the middle of the body.

Description of holotype (ZMGU 2570)

Head depressed; snout cuneiform, with sharp angular labial edge; mouth inferior. Rostral with a triangular, convex, superior portion equal in length to two-thirds the width, the inferior portion slightly concave, lying entirely in front of the mouth, and equal in length to about two-thirds the width; the posterior angle of the rostral does not partially separate the supranasals; frontonasal septagonal, two thirds as broad as long, twice as long as the suture formed by the supranasals; frontal ten-sided, broader than long, interparietal slightly broader than long, equal with frontal, its straight anterior border forming a broad suture with the straight posterior border of the frontal; a pair of elongate, curved parietals, about one-third as broad as long, obliquely arranged, meet behind the interparietal to form a short suture; a pair of enlarged nuchal shields, in contact behind parietals. Nostril in the suture between the nasal and the supranasal, narrowly separated from the rostral: nasal three-fourths the length of the supranasal, as high as long; supranasal broader than long; prefrontals quadrangular and elongate, in broad contact with preocular, not in contact with supralabials; preocular very large, about two-thirds distance between eye and nostril, and in contact with third, fourth, and fifth supralabials; loreal as high as long, smaller than the preocular, three small supraoculars, size is 2> 1> 3; no frontoparietal; four or five elongate supraciliaries on each side; upper eyelid rudimentary; lower lid with a larger transparent scale, two postoculars. Six supralabials, fifth is very large, presumably as a result of fusion with the supralabial behind it, twice or more the size of adjacent labials and in contact with eye, postocular and preocular (below the eye, postocular and preocular), the 1st much smaller. No ear opening. Parietal eye not discernable.

Three toes, three fingers. Four scales on longest fin- ger, seven scales on longest toe.

Mental quadrangular, the posterior border concave; two azygous postmentals, the posterior (second) much larger, first postmental in contact with first pair of sublabials, second postmental in contact with first, second, and third pairs of sublabials; a series of three enlarged shields on either side of the chin, bordering the infralabials, six supralabials, six sublabials.

The tail is broken approximately at one half its length, and the broken part has been retained.