Aprasia parapulchella

1 Pink-tailed Worm-lizard at Googong, NSW

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Aprasia parapulchella MichaelMulvaney 23 Oct 2017
Aprasia parapulchella Wandiyali 27 Aug 2017

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Significant sighting

MichaelMulvaney noted:

23 Oct 2017

New location for this nationally vulnerable lizard

User's notes

Fresh skin shed. On site ID thanks Rob Armstrong and Rod Pietsch.

3 comments

   28 Aug 2017
Excellent close up photos of the lizard skin slough.This certainly looks like an Aprasia skin slough. However you have to be very careful with sloughed skin as there are several local species of legless lizard that shed their skin in this way (in particular Delma inornata and Delma impar). When doing field work, as a reference I keep a known Aprasia parapulchella skin in a container with that of the skin of a juvenile Delma impar. They can look very similar until you look at head shields . The lack of a parietal scale and lack of an external ear opening in Aprasia are easy features to check for if the slough has the head region intact. Mid body scale counts do not help as they overlap in number with the other two species. Having said that this looks like a typical skin slough from an Aprasia especially given that the ant burrow that it lives in is also featured in the photo. The location is within an area where the species has been found in quite a lot of surveys.
   28 Aug 2017
Many thanks for the excellent information Will. I look forward to finding the skin of a Delma too.
   23 Oct 2017
Rod Peitsch from NSW OEH was present during survey and has confirmed identity of skin

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