High Densities of a "Rare" Skink

Abstract

The present paper reports on a census of a small, Southeast Asian, forest-floor skink, 'Sphenomorphus tridigitus' (Bourret 1939), using this method of fenced plots. This "rare" species was previously known from only four specimens. It was originally described on the basis of a single specimen in a poor state of preservation found dead on a road at Bach Ma, Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam (Bourret 1939). Greer et al. (2006) redescribed the species from a second specimen found "at day, hidden inside a log lying on grass near a small creek in an open forest" at 1200-1250 m elevation on the Bolaven Plateau (="Boloven Highlands") in Champasak Province, Laos. Bain et al. (2007) reported on two additional specimens that were collected in pitfall traps, one at 940 m elevation and one at 1470 m elevation, on Mt. Ngoc Linh, Tra Don Commune, Tra My District, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.