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 Province, 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 tagapayo 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) and S. luzonensis (from which it differs by a much smaller body size, coloration, fewer paravertebrals and greater number of midbody scale rows). The new species is also similar in size, scalation, ecology and coloration to members 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 supradigital scales, smaller lower eyelid scales (vs a row of columnar-shaped scales covering half of the lower eyelid), higher midbody scale counts, the presence of two (vs one) oviducts, and a brood size of two (vs one).