Accepted by S. Carranza: 15 Mar. 2010; published: 28 Apr. 2010 53 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2010 · Magnolia Press Zootaxa 2439: 53–68 (2010) www.mapress.com/ zootaxa/ Article A new species of the genus Tropidophorus Duméril & Bibron, 1839 (Squamata: Sauria: Scincidae) from Vietnam TRUONG QUANG NGUYEN 1,5,7 , TAO THIEN NGUYEN 2 , ANDREAS SCHMITZ 3 , NIKOLAI L. ORLOV 4 & THOMAS ZIEGLER 6 1 Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Hanoi, Vietnam. E-mail: nqt2@yahoo.com 2 Vietnam National Museum of Nature, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Hanoi, Vietnam. E-mail: nguyenthientao@gmail.com 3 Muséum d'histoire naturelle, C.P. 6434, CH-1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland. E-mail: andreas.schmitz@ville-ge.ch 4 Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab., 1, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia. E-mail: azemiops@zin.ru 5 Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany 6 AG Zoologischer Garten Köln, Riehler Strasse 173, D-50735 Cologne, Germany. E-mail: ziegler@koelnerzoo.de 7 Corresponding author Abstract A new species of the genus Tropidophorus is described from Hoang Lien Mountain, Sa Pa and Van Ban districts, Lao Cai Province, northern Vietnam. Tropidophorus boehmei sp. nov. is characterized by the combination of the following features: size relatively large (maximum SVL 103.5 mm); upper head scales smooth; frontonasal undivided; prefrontals very small, widely separated; loreals 2, anterior loreal undivided; supralabials 6; supraciliaries 7–8, supraciliary row completed along the entire length of the lateral edge of supraoculars; external ear opening present, tympanum superficial, tympanum diameter smaller than eye length; midbody scales in 30–32 rows; dorsal and lateral scales on body and tail smooth; paravertebral scales 60–69, not widened; scale rows at position of tenth subcaudal 17–18; ventral scales 56–66; medial subcaudals divided from first to fifth, remaining ones about 1.5 times wider than neighboring scales; 16–19 smooth lamellae under fourth toe; dorsum and tail base dark grey with light transverse bands and two dorsolateral rows of white dots from neck to tail base; body sides dark grey with irregular small white dots from behind the eye to tail base. In addition, previous records of Tropidophorus berdmorei from northern Vietnam are discussed. Key words: Tropidophorus boehmei sp. nov., T. berdmorei, taxonomy, phylogeny, Vietnam: Lao Cai Province: Hoang Lien Mountain Introduction The genus Tropidophorus Duméril & Bibron, 1839 is a skink group with a high level of local endemism, with 15 of 27 species being restricted to a single country (Greer & Biswas 2004; Chuaynkern et al. 2005; Ziegler et al. 2005; Honda et al. 2006; Nguyen et al. 2010). In Vietnam, a total of eight water skink species of the genus Tropidophorus have been recorded and three of them are endemic to the country (Nguyen et al. 2009). From the Indochinese Peninsula, 15 species of Tropidophorus are currently known: T. baviensis Bourret, 1939; T. berdmorei (Blyth, 1853); T. cocincinensis Duméril & Bibron, 1839; T. guangxiensis Wen, 1992; T. hainanus Smith, 1923; T. hangnam Chuaynkern, Nabhitabhata, Inthara, Kamsook & Somsri, 2005; T. laotus Smith, 1923; T. latiscutatus Hikida, Orlov, Nabhitabhata & Ota, 2002; T. matsuii Hikida, Orlov, Nabhitabhata & Ota, 2002; T. microlepis Günther, 1861; T. murphyi Hikida, Orlov, Nabhitabhata & Ota, 2002; T. noggei Ziegler, Vu & Bui, 2005; T. robinsoni Smith, 1919; T. sinicus Boettger, 1886; and T. thai Smith, 1919 (Hartmann et al. 2009; Nguyen et al . 2009; Nguyen et al . 2010). With the exception of T. berdmorei and T. laotus , all aforementioned species have keeled dorsal and lateral scales. During recent field work in northern Vietnam, we found a collection of the water skinks from Hoang Lien (Fansipan) Mountain, which resembled TERMS OF USE This pdf is provided by Magnolia Press for private/research use. Commercial sale or deposition in a public library or website is prohibited.