Abstract

We describe a new species of blind skink of the genus Dibamus Duméril et Bibron, 1839 based on five specimens collected from Bokor National Park, Kampot Province, southern Cambodia. Dibamus elephantinus sp. n. can be distinguished from its congeners by the following combination of morphological characters: snout-vent length (SVL) up to 129.3 mm; tail length comprises 17–22% of SVL; rostral suture incomplete; nasal and labial sutures complete; single postocular; three scales at the posteromedial edge of first infralabial; two scales at the posterior edge of second infralabial; the medial sublabial scale enlarged; 19 midbody scale rows; 22 transverse scale rows just posterior to head; 17–19 transverse scale rows just anterior to vent; 178–202 ventral scales; 46–52 subcaudal scales; relative size of frontal to frontonasal (FSW/FNSW) 127–136%; relative size of interparietal to surrounding scales (IPW/NSW) 111–140%; in males hindlimbs longer than head length (HLL/HL 74–78%); the light colored band on the body may be present or absent. We provide an osteological description of the new species based on micro-CT data. Genetically and morphologically Dibamus elephantinus sp. n. is most closely related to D. dalaiensis inhabiting the western part of the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia. The new species inhabits montane evergreen forests of Damrei Range (also known as Elephant Mountains) at elevations of ca. 1000 m a. s. l. Our study brings the number of species in the genus Dibamus to 27; Dibamus elephantinus sp. n. is the second species of Dibamus to be recorded from Cambodia.

Dibamus elephantinus sp. n.