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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Scincidae  
Moth Skink
Ornithuroscincus noctua (Lesson, 1830)
or-NITH-ur-oh-SKINK-us — NOK-too-uh
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Native to some Pacific islands. It is established throughout Hawai’i (Stejneger, 1899, The land reptiles of Hawaiian Islands. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 21: 783–813; McKeown, 1996, A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands. Diamond Head Publishing, Incorporated, Los Osos, California; Austin, 1999, Nature 397: 113–114). Salavenko et al. (2022, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195: 220–227) created the genus Ornithuroscincus and transferred Lipinia noctua into it. Slavenko et al. (op. cit.) suggested that Ornithuroscincus noctua was a species complex in need of further taxonomic resolution. (Krysko, Kenneth and Travis W. Taggart. 2025. Established Exotic Species. Pages 64-87 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 50 Total; 32 Museum; 18 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2024.04.15.10.19.24)
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Hawaii

Taxonomic Etymology:
A mottled, arboreal skink with a name evoking birds and owls.
Ornithuroscincus — From Greek ornis (ὄρνις), “bird,” oura (οὐρά), “tail,” and scincus, “skink.” Possibly refers to its arboreal (bird-like, tree-living) habits or elongated tail resembling bird anatomy.
noctua — Latin for “owl.” May refer to the mottled, cryptic pattern resembling an owl’s plumage or its nocturnal habits.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1899 Stejneger, Leonhard H. The land reptiles of Hawaiian Islands. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 21(1174):783-813
1996 McKeown, Sean. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands. Diamond Head Publishing, Inc., Los Osos, California. 172pp.
1999 Austin, Christopher C. Lizards took express train to Polynesia. Nature 397(6715):113-114
2021 Slavenko, Alex, Karin, Tamar, Oliver J S Tallowin, Fred Kraus, Allen Allison, Salvador Carranza, and Shai Meiri. Revision of the montane New Guinean skink genus Lobulia (Squamata: Scincidae), with the description of four new genera and nine new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195(1):220–227

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