New species of diminutive scincid lizard (Squamata; lygosominae : Sphenomorphus) from Luzon Island, Republic of the Philippines

Sphenomorphus tagapayo is a new species of scincid lizard from Amora Provin ce, southeastern Luzon Island, Republic of the Philippines, The new species inhabits leaf litter between the elevations of 720 and 1175 m in tropical montane cloud forests along the island's eastern coast. Sphenomorphus tagap ayo appears most closely related to Sphenomorphus atrigularis, S. lawtoni, S. biparietalis, S. steerei (differing from all of these by coloration and various morphological characters, most notably a scale-covered tympanum) an d S. luzonensis (from which it differs by a much smaller body size, colorat ion, fewer paravertebrals and greater number of midbody scale rows). The ne w species is also similar in size, scalation, ecology and coloration to mem bers of the genus Parvoscincus (P. palawanensis and P. sisoni) but differs from these species by the possession of a single frontoparietal (vs paired frontoparietals), two rows (vs one row) of alternately overlapping supradig ital scales, smaller lower eyelid scales (vs a row of columnar-shaped scale s covering half of the lower eyelid), higher midbody scale counts, the pres ence of two (vs one) oviducts, and a brood size of two (vs one).