Eulamprus heatwolei

Yellow-bellied Water Skink at Uriarra, NSW

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Identification history

	Eulamprus heatwolei	25 Mar 2022	PatrickCampbell
	Eulamprus heatwolei	21 Jan 2022	SWishart

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3 comments

wombey wrote:

21 Jan 2022

Appears to have a white anterior edge to the ear opening which would suggest tympanum, but keen to hear Will's opinion

PatrickCampbell wrote:

25 Mar 2022

The anterior edge of the tympanum, whilst predominantly pale, is discontinuous i.e broken by a black section at the bottom, which is often the case with E. heatwolei, combined with a distinctive dark temporal region partially divided by a pale, short stripe; strongly contrasting/patterned throat and relatively heavily dark spotted dorsum all indicate E. heatwolei.

WillO wrote:

25 Mar 2022

Coree Flats is an interesting location because E. tympanum occurs out in the wet boggy flat away from the trees and E. heatwolei is present in the Mountain Gum - Snow Gum forest that surrounds the flat. This indvidual looks to be a heatwolei. However, water skinks can be very hard to identify from a single photograph. Like Patrick, I am pretty sure this is Eulamprus heatwolei - it has the pale mark along the dorso-lateral area from above shoulder to above forelimb that E. heatwolei has - obscured a bit by light reflection. Yes it does have a partial pale front edge to the ear opening but the pale edge does not run through as far as the lower labial area (although in my experience this character can sometimes be unreliable). Subjectively I have found that E. tympanum always seems to have a rounder head profile (boof head) compared to E. heatwolei with its slightly flattened look to the head (like this individual) .

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