Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826

Hedges, S. Blair & Conn, Caitlin E., 2012, A new skink fauna from Caribbean islands (Squamata, Mabuyidae, Mabuyinae) 3288, Zootaxa 3288 (1), pp. 1-244 : 85-86

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.3288.1.1
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/39191A7F-075D-FFAB-2DA8-E90F7E2FFE17
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826
status

Treatment

Genus Mabuya Fitzinger, 1826

Antillean Two-lined Skinks

Mabuia — Cuvier, 1829:64 (unjustified emendation).

Mabouya — Duméril & Bibron, 1839:579 (unjustified emendation).

Mabouya — Gray, 1845:93 (unjustified emendation).

Mabuia —Cope, 1862:185 (unjustified emendation).

Mabuia — Boulenger, 1887:150 (unjustified emendation).

Mabuia — Cope, 1900:616 (unjustified emendation).

Mabuia — Meerwarth, 1901:37 (unjustified emendation).

Mabuya — Taylor, 1956:295 (part).

Mabuya —Greer, 1970:172 (part).

Mabuya —Mausfeld et al., 2002:288.

Diagnosis. Species in this genus are characterized by (1) frontoparietals, two, (2) supraciliaries, four (occasionally three, five, or six), (3) supraoculars, three, in at least some individuals of all species, with two occurring in some individuals of Mabuya grandisterrae sp. nov. and M. guadeloupae sp. nov., and four occurring in some individuals of M. mabouya and M. dominicana , (4) prefrontal contact, absent (or contact rarely), (5) parietal contact, present, (6) rows of nuchals, one (occasionally two), (7) dorsals + ventrals, 116–138, (8) total lamellae, 211–253, (9) a dark middorsal stripe, absent, (10) dark dorsolateral stripes, absent (thin line on nape in M. guadeloupae sp. nov. and in some M. dominicana ), (11) a dark lateral stripe, present, and (12) dark ventral striping, absent. Most species are large, with a range of maximum body sizes among the species of 92.3–106 mm SVL ( Table 2).

The presence of three supraoculars (usually) distinguishes this genus from all others except Aspronema , although three supraoculars appears rarely in Copeoglossum , Marisora , Notomabuya , and Spondylurus . The absence of dark dorsolateral stripes (except thin line on nape in M. guadeloupae sp. nov. and in some M. dominicana ) distinguishes this genus from Aspronema , Manciola , Orosaura , Panopa , Psychosaura , and Spondylurus . The presence of two frontoparietals (instead of one) distinguishes this genus from Exila , Notomabuya , and Panopa . The presence of four supraciliaries (rarely three, five, or six) distinguishes Mabuya from Brasiliscincus , Capitellum , and Exila (5–6 supraciliaries). Contact of the parietal scales distinguishes Mabuya from Copeoglossum .

Content. Eight species are placed in this genus: Mabuya cochonae sp. nov., M. desiradae sp. nov., M. dominicana , M. grandisterrae sp. nov., M. guadeloupae sp. nov., M. hispaniolae sp. nov., M. mabouya , and M. montserratae sp. nov. ( Table 1).

Distribution. This genus is restricted to the West Indies, occurring in the Greater Antilles (Hispaniola) and Lesser Antilles ( Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Martinique; Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 , 8A View FIGURE 8 , 9B View FIGURE 9 , and 11B–C, E–F View FIGURE 11 ).

Etymology. The generic name Mabuya is a feminine noun derived from the same name used by native peoples of the Americas, especially the Antilles, for various types of lizards.

Remarks. This is a cohesive, well-defined clade of large skinks, with a combination (usually) of three supraoculars, parietal contact, and two dark lateral stripes ( Figs. 30–32 View FIGURE 30 View FIGURE 31 View FIGURE 32 ). Seven of the eight species occupy adjacent islands in the central core of the Lesser Antilles, and the eighth occurs on Hispaniola. Aside from the species on Dominica, they are rarely seen, and three ( Mabuya hispaniolae sp. nov., M. mabouya , and M. montserratae sp. nov.) may be extinct. Sequence data are available for only one species ( M. dominicana ). We hesitate drawing any conclusions from the morphological data regarding relationships among the eight species. However, it is clear that the geographically disjunct M. hispaniolae sp. nov. is closely related to the other seven species. Water currents in the central and northern Lesser Antilles would carry flotsam directly to Hispaniola in a relatively short period of time, and this is the best explanation for the origin of M. hispaniolae sp. nov.

There has been some confusion in the literature regarding the extent of the distribution of the two-lined skinks (formerly " M. m. mabouya " or " M. mabouya "; here primarily the Genus Mabuya ) and four-lined skinks (formerly " M. m. sloanii " or " M. sloanii "; here primarily the Genus Spondylurus ). Dunn (1936) considered skinks from St. Martin, part of the Anguilla Bank in the northern Lesser Antilles, to be intermediate between his races of " Mabuya mabouya ". He did this because of their possession of dark dorsolateral stripes (a " M. mabouya sloanii " character) and mix of characters from both races (three and four supraoculars, one and> 1 nuchal rows). Schwartz and Thomas (1975) essentially followed Dunn, but inexplicably assigned a break in the distributions to the Lesser Antilles (M. m. mabouya ) and Greater Antilles (M. m. sloanii ) and thus included skinks of the Anguilla Bank in M.

m. mabouya , for which there was no evidence. This was carried through in later taxonomic summaries ( Schwartz & Henderson 1988; Schwartz & Henderson 1991). Breuil (2002) correctly included " M. sloanii " (= Spondylurus here) for the Anguilla Bank but assumed that the previous authors were correct about M. mabouya being there as well, so he indicated, incorrectly, that both taxa were sympatric on the Anguilla Bank. Lorvelec et al. (2007) then followed Breuil in showing sympatry. Finally, Miralles (2005) considered M. mabouya to be "the most southern species in the Lesser Antilles" and "endemic to Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Lucia," but he did not mention what species he thought occurred on Redonda or Montserrat, and, separately, he overlooked that skinks also occur on islands south of St. Lucia ( St. Vincent, Grenadines, and Grenada). In part because of that error, Henderson and Powell (2009) incorrectly considered the skinks of Redonda and Montserrat to be allied with M. sloanii . But Dunn (1936), who started this chain reaction of errors, was not correct about the skinks of the Anguilla Bank. They have four stripes and other characters that ally them with the four-lined clade, Spondylurus , and are genetically members of that genus ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 ).