Dasia olivacea (Olive Tree Skink)

The common name of this Skink Lizard in English is commonly called Olivaceus Tree Skink, Olive Tree Skink, Olive Dasia and Thai name called จิ้งเหลนต้นไม้ (Djing-len Ton Mai).

Dasia olivacea, Olive Tree Skink, จิ้งเหลนต้นไม้
Source: thainationalparks.com; Dasia olivacea Gray, 1839 from Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Photo by Thai National Parks. (CC-BY)

จิ้งเหลนต้นไม้ : Dasia olivacea Gray, 1839

Dasia olivacea is a species of the Tree skink Genus (Dasia) within the Subfamily Mabuyinae, in the Skink Lizard Family (Scincidae), Superfamily Scincomorpha, in the Lizard and Snake Order (Squamata), in the Reptile Class (Reptilia), in the Chordate Phylum (Chordata) in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia).

Published in Gray,J.E. Catalogue of the slender-tongued saurians, with descriptions of many new genera and species. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) 2: 331-337 (287-293) [1838]. (1839).

Geographic Range

According to Grossmann (1986), this Dasia olivacea inhabits the region south of 15º N in Southeast Asia. This includes southern Myanmar, peninsular Thailand, Cambodia, southern Viet Nam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java and Borneo), the Andaman Islands, and the Nicobar Islands.

However, Stuart and Emmett (2006) note that in Cambodia it is known from a single locality and is not distributed across the entire country (B. Stuart pers. comm.)

Habitat and Ecology

This Dasia olivacea is a canopy-dwelling arboreal species (R. Inger pers. comm.), living almost exclusively in trees and only coming down to the ground to nest or move between trees (Grismer et al. 2006).

It has been found in flatland trees as well as coastal areas (Rogner 1997). A study in 1986 found the species in primary rainforests, cultivated patches, in gardens and on individual isolated palm trees (Grossmann 1986).

The Dasia olivacea is oviparous. The eggs undergo an incubation period of 69 days (Grossmann 1986). Clutch sizes may range up to 14 eggs and more than one clutch may be produced each year (Das 2002).

Type locality: Prince of Wales’ Island (= Pulau Pinang, West Malaysia)

Diagnosis

Diagnosis (genus): large sized skink (snout vent length in an adult specimen more than 100 mm); body robust; limbs well developed, overlapping, when adpressed, tip of fourth toe reaching palm; dorsal scales with multiple keels; supranasals present; tympanum deeply sunk; lower eyelid scaly, lacking a transparent window; crossbands present in an adult specimen; one pair of nuchal scales; interparietal completely separating parietals; pterygoid teeth present. [from Geissler & Kuper 2019, following Greer 1970 and Grismer 2011]

Synonym

  • Eurepes olivaceus John Edward Gray (1839)
  • Lygosoma olivaceum John Edward Gray (1839)
  • Tiliqua olivacea John Edward Gray (1839)
  • Euprepes ernesti André Marie Constant Duméril & Auguste Duméril (1839)
  • Dasia olivacea John Edward Gray (1839)
  • Euprepes ernesti André Marie Constant Duméril & Gabriel Bibron (1839)
  • Eurepes olivaceus Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1864)
  • Tiliqua olivacea Ferdinand Stoliczka (1870)
  • Eurepes olivaceus Ferdinand Stoliczka (1873)
  • Tiliqua sulcata Wilhelm Karl Hartwich Peters & Johann Gustav Fischer (1885)
  • Lygosoma olivaceum George Albert Boulenger (1887)
  • Mabuia saravacensis Edward Bartlett (1895)
  • Lygosoma olivaceum Karel Willem Dammerman (1929)
  • Dasia olivacea Malcolm Arthur Smith (1935)
  • Dasia olivacea Edward Harrison Taylor (1963)
  • Dasia olivacea John Roscoe Hendrickson (1966)
  • Dasia olivacea Ulrich Manthey & Wolfgang Grossmann (1997)
  • Dasia olivacea Merel J. Cox et al. (1998)
  • Dasia olivacea Rudolf Malkmus et al. (2002)
  • Dasia olivacea Larry Lee Grismer (2011)