Solomon Islands Skink - Taxonomy and Etymology

Taxonomy and Etymology

The Solomon Islands skink was first described by John Edward Gray in 1856 as Corucia zebrata. The generic name Corucia derives from the Latin word coruscus meaning "shimmering". This is in reference to Gray's description of "a play of colors effect from the body scales". Its specific name zebrata is a Latinized form of the word zebra, in reference to the animal's zebra-like stripes. Its common names (prehensile-tailed skink, monkey-tailed skink or monkey skink) refer to its fully prehensile tail which the species uses as a fifth limb for climbing.

Although appearances of skinks vary from island to island, a subspecies from the western islands of the Solomons Archipelago was described by Dr. Gunther Köhler in 1996 as C. z. alfredschmidti, its trinomial name was in honor of Alfred Schmidt.

The closest living relatives of C. zebrata are the Blue-tongued skinks of the genus Tiliqua and skinks of the genus Egernia of Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia; all of which are found in the subfamily Lygosominae.