Emoia longicauda ( Macleay, 1877 )

Karin, Benjamin R., Stubbs, Alexander L., Arifin, Umilaela, Bloch, Luke M., Ramadhan, G., Iskandar, Djoko T., Arida, Evy, Reilly, Sean B., Kusnadi, Agus & Mcguire, Jimmy A., 2018, The herpetofauna of the Kei Islands (Maluku, Indonesia): Comprehensive report on new and historical collections, biogeographic patterns, conservation concerns, and an annotated checklist of species from Kei Kecil, Kei Besar, Tam, and Kur, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 66, pp. 704-738 : 723

Emoia longicauda ( Macleay, 1877)

Type locality. Darnley Island , Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia .

Fig. 21. Photo in life of Emoia atrocostata from Kei Kecil ( ALS 392).

Distribution in the Kei Islands. Roux (1910) reported this species from the Kei Islands, though it is unclear if this refers to Kei Kecil or Kei Besar. We collected one specimen of E. longicauda from Kur from a coconut grove, and it is possible that it is also present on the other islands as well.

Natural history. The one specimen we observed of this species was approximately 4 m above ground on the trunk of a coconut tree in a large coconut grove on Kur Island. We have also observed this species in secondary forest or coconut groves on the nearby Banda and Aru Islands. It is known to be arboreal through the rest of its range, and able to easily jump between branches ( Wilson & Swan, 2013, p. 264).

Field identification. This species is one of two large, mostly green arboreal skinks in the Kei Islands. It is distinguished from Lamprolepis smaragdina , by its more gracile build, longer tail and present (though reduced) supranasals. Emoia longicauda has a greenish-bronze dorsum with small, dark flecks on individual scales. Ventral surface bright green. 24–26 mid-body scale rows; 55–70 fourth toe subdigital lamellae, basal most smooth; SVL to 80 mm ( Cogger, 2014, p. 551).

Remarks. E. cyanogaster keiensis Sternfeld, 1918 , a subspecies of Emoia from the E. cyanogaster species complex, was described from the Kei Islands, though the subspecies was later synonymised by Brown (1991) with E. longicauda ( Shea & Michels, 2008) . Brown (1991) noted that while the specimens he examined from the Kei and Aru Islands were more similar to E. longicauda than to E. cyanogaster , it would require further material to resolve the status of the subspecies, and we agree with this assessment.