Sphenomorphus cryptotis

Morphological characters (determination after Darevsky et al. 2004). Female: SVL 68.2 mm; TaL 116.8 mm. For further measurements and proportions see Table 1.

Head longer than wide; rostral wider than high; supranasals absent; prefrontals in contact with each other; parietals in contact posteriorly; loreals 2; supraoculars 4, followed by 2 postsupraoculars, anterior one divided; primary temporal single; secondary temporals 2, upper very large and overlapped by lower one; lower eyelid scaly; supralabials 7, the fifth and sixth below the eye, separated from the eye by one row of small scales; external ear openings superficial, without lobules; mental wider than long; infralabials 6; postmental undivided; midbody scales in 34 rows; dorsal scales between lateral stripes in ½ + 6 + ½ rows, smooth; paravertebral scales 71; ventrals in 75 transverse rows, smooth; precloacals 2, enlarged; medial subcaudals widened; limbs short, pentadactyl; fingers and toes meeting when adpressed; subdigital lamellae smooth, numbering 13 under fourth finger and 20 under fourth toe.

Coloration in alcohol. Dorsum and tail base yellowish brown with a vertebral row of large black spots; numerous indistinct white spots on the labials; lateral zone with a distinct dark stripe from behind the eye to tail base, with white spots; neck and throat white, with black dots; venter and underside anterior part of tail white, posterior part of tail yellowish brown (see Fig. 6).

The adult female was collected at ca. 9:00 on a tree branch, ca. 1.2 m above the water in a rocky stream. The surrounding habitat was evergreen secondary forest of hardwood and shrub.

This species is currently known only from northern Vietnam: Lao Cai, Bac Giang, Quang Ninh, and Nghe An provinces (Nguyen et al., 2009). This is the first record of the species from Dien Bien Province.