Dibamus dalaiensis (Cambodian Legless Skink)
The common name of this Skink Lizard in English is commonly called Cambodian Legless Skink, Cambodian Blind Skink, Phnom Dalai Blind Skink, Phnom Dalai Legless Skink, Phnom Dalai Legless Lizard and Thai name called จิ้งเหลนด้วงเขมร (Djing-len Duang Ka-men)
จิ้งเหลนด้วงเขมร : Dibamus dalaiensis Neang, Holden, Eastoe, Seng, Ith & Grismer, 2011
Dibamus dalaiensis is a species of the Legless Lizard Genus (Dibamus) within the Blind Skink Family (Dibamidae), Superfamily Dibamia, in the Lizard and Snake Order (Squamata), in the Reptile Class (Reptilia), in the Chordate Phylum (Chordata) in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia).
Published in Neang, Thy; Jeremy Holden,Toby Eastoe,Rathea Seng,, Saveng Ith & L. Lee Grismer. A new species of Dibamus (Squamata: Dibamidae) from Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, southwestern Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. Zootaxa 2828: 58–68. (2011).
The specific epithet 'dalaiensis' refers to the type locality of Phnom Dalai in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, southwestern Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia.
Geographic Range
This species was described from Phnom Dalai in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, in the southwestern Cardamom Mountains, Pursat province, Cambodia, at 500-1,009 m asl. (Neang et al. 2011).
This remains the only published record of this species, although it has since been found in the southeast of Phnom Samkos, and in Bokor National Park in the Damrei Mountains adjacent to the Cardamom range (T. Neang and B. Stuart, unpubl. data). It is consequently thought likely to be fairly widespread within these mountain ranges.
Habitat and Ecology
It inhabits primary hill evergreen forest (Neang et al. 2011). There are no records from disturbed habitats.
Type locality: primary hill evergreen forest of Phnom Dalai in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, southwestern Cardamom Mountains, Pursat province, Cambodia at (12° 26' 26.091" N, 103° 4' 39.708" E), 1009 m elevation.
Diagnosis
Dibamus dalaiensis is differentiated from all other congeners by having the following combination of characters:
- maximum SVL of 127.6 mm; tail length 18–22% of SVL;
- labial and nasal sutures complete;
- rostral suture present but incomplete; rostral pad divided into two equal parts;
- a single postocular;
- three scales bordering the posterior edge of first infralabial; an enlarged, medial, sublabial scale;
- 20 midbody scale rows;
- 22 transverse scale rows just posterior to head;
- 20 transverse scale rows just anterior to vent;
- 185–209 ventral scales;
- 48–52 sub- caudal scales;
- relative size of frontal to frontanasal 1.4;
- relative size of interparietal to surrounding scales 1.5.
These characters are scored across all nominal species of Dibamus in Table 2 in NEANG et al. 2011.