| Genus Dibamus Duméril
& Bibron, 1839.
Photo & text by R. G. Sprackland,
Ph.D.
This genus of tiny (to
200 mm TL) lizards has long been en evolutionary enigma. Over time
herpetologists have tentatively allied them with skinks, geckos and
pygopodids (which are now part of the Gekkonidae). There is still no
consensus regarding their systematic position. Rieppel (1984) allies
dibamids with skinks of the Acontias complex.
Dibamids are distributed
from eastern India through Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos,
the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, southern China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the
Philippines, and New Guinea, at least as far east as Manokwari on the
Vogelkopf Peninsula. Though they have been collected many times
and are represented in most major museum collections, little but
anatomical data are known for the six or so named species. Dibamus
novaeguinea Duméril & Bibron, 1839, is the type for the genus and
apparently most widely distributed species. |
Male dibamids have a small
pair of flaps on either side of the vent. Dibamids have paired
premaxillary bones, lack an interorbital septum and columella cranii, and
lack osteoderms.
These lizards are
essentially blind burrowers, their tiny eyes barely visible as dark specks
under the ocular scales. The rostral shield is enormous, as is the first
labial. Body scales are squarish and smooth. The color ranges from pale
pink to light brown, sometimes a bit lighter on the belly.
What little is known of
the ecology of these lizards comes from dissection of museum specimens.
They feed on tiny insects (ants, termites) and other small arthropods.
They dig in soft soils and rotting logs. They lay two hard shelled eggs
that resemble those laid by geckos. |
