70 Current Herpetol. 20(2) 2001 



Takarajima, Kodakarajima and Kojima 

 Islands of the Tokara Group (Toyama, 

 1989; Ota et al., 1994). Two subspecies, E. 

 m. marginatus from the Okinawa Group, 

 and E. m. oshimensis from the Amami 

 and Tokara Groups, are generally recog- 

 nized on the basis of scutellation and 

 coloration (e.g., Nakamura and Ueno, 

 1963). Although some external characters, 

 such as the scale row number and juvenile 

 tail coloration, are known to vary among 

 island populations of E. marginatus, varia- 

 tions are not consistent with the geographic 

 arrangement of populations and thus are 

 considered to have little significance in 

 terms of their historical relationships 

 (Toyama, 1989). In fact, Kato et al. 

 (1994), in the phylogenetic analyses of 

 allozyme data for 19 populations represent- 

 ing six species of the East Asian Eumeces, 



recognized two assemblages of island popu- 

 lations within E. m. oshimensis, of which 

 one is genetically closer to E. m. marginatus 

 than to the other "consubspecific" assem- 

 blage. 



Recently, Toyama (1995) reported on two 

 Eumeces specimens collected for the first 

 time from lotorishima Island, an uninhab- 

 ited islet 65 km west of Tokunoshima 

 Island, the Amami Group (Fig. 1). These 

 specimens, while most resembling E. m. 

 oshimensis in head scutellation and colora- 

 tion, differed from E. marginatus in 

 having more rows of scales around the 

 midbody (34, vs 24-30; Toyama, 1995). 



In May 1997, four additional specimens 

 of Eumeces were collected from lotorishima 

 Island by S. Ikehara and colleagues during 

 a comprehensive scientific survey of the 

 island. We sampled fresh tissues from 



Okinawa 

 Group 



■^2 

 \ Tokara 



3 Group 



1^5 



7 



Fig. 1. A map of the central Ryukyus, showing sampling localities of Eumeces marginatus. 

 l=Iotorishima, 2=Kodakarajima, 3=Takarajima, 4=Amamioshima, 5=Tokunoshima, 6=Okinoer- 

 abujima, 7=Yoronjima, 8=Yona, 9=Bise, 10=Shuri, ll=Kumejima. 



