Immunological Relationships and Generic Revision of the Australian Lizards Assigned to the Genus Leiolopisma (Scincidae, Lygosominae)

Abstract

The phylogenetic relationships of the Australian scincid lizards currently assigned to the genus Leiolopisma have been examined by quantitative micro-complement fixation (MC'F) comparisons of serum albumin. The results of these comparisons do not support the monophyly implicit in these species' current congeneric status, but suggest instead that the Australian species of Leiolopisma belong to several distinct phyletic lineages within the Eugongylus group. These findings are supported by several sets of non-biochemical characters, including features of scalation, osteology and karyotype. None of the Australian species shares a close relationship with the type-species of Leiolopisrna (L. telfairii), and so a new taxonomic arrangement is proposed which distributes them among the following genera: Bartleia, gen. nov. (jigurru); Bassiana, gen. nov. (duperreyi, platynotum and trilineata); Cautula, gen. nov. (zia); Niveoscincus, gen. nov. (coventryi, greeni, metallicus, microlepidotus, ocellatus, orocryptus, palfreymani and pretiosus); and Pseudemoia Fuhn, 1967 (baudini, entrecasteauxii Group 1; entrecasteauxii Group 2, rawlinsoni and spenceri). Preliminary comparisons suggest that other Leiolopisma species, from New Caledonia, Lord Howe I. and New Zealand, belong to phyletic lineages which are distinct from any of the Australian 'Leiolopisma' and from the type-species.