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25 August 2008 Clutch Size in the Tropical Scincid Lizard Emoia sanfordi, a Species Endemic to the Vanuatu Archipelago
Alison Madeline Hamilton, Mallory Elizabeth Eckstut, Elaine Renee Klein, Christopher Cowell Austin
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Abstract

The majority of species in the scincid genus Emoia (Squamata: Scincidae) have a fixed clutch size of two eggs per clutch and produce between two and four clutches per year. One lineage within Emoia, the Emoia samoensis species group, consists of 13 species occurring in Melanesia and the islands of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and exhibits variation in clutch size, with previously reported clutch sizes of two to five eggs. Little is known about reproduction in several members of this lineage including Emoia sanfordi, a large-bodied lizard endemic to the archipelago of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. We analyzed reproduction and clutch size in E. sanfordi females and discovered that there is a substantial amount of intraspecific variation, with clutch size ranging from two to seven eggs, with a modal clutch size of five eggs. Females were reproductively active throughout the study period of June through October and appear to be laying multiple clutches. The variation in clutch size seen in E. sanfordi is congruent with the variation previously reported within other closely related species.

Alison Madeline Hamilton, Mallory Elizabeth Eckstut, Elaine Renee Klein, and Christopher Cowell Austin "Clutch Size in the Tropical Scincid Lizard Emoia sanfordi, a Species Endemic to the Vanuatu Archipelago," Zoological Science 25(8), 843-848, (25 August 2008). https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.25.843
Received: 7 January 2008; Accepted: 7 May 2008; Published: 25 August 2008
KEYWORDS
eggs
Emoia samoensis group
lygosomine skink
Melanesian fauna
Oceania
reproduction
reproductive cycle
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