Tropidophorus beccarii, also known commonly as Beccari's keeled skink and Beccari's water skink, is a species of lizard in the subfamily Lygosominae of the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the island of Borneo.
Etymology The specific name, beccarii, is in honor of Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari.Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Tropidophorus beccarii, p. 20).
Geographic range On the island of Borneo, T. beccarii is found in Brunei, northern Kalimantan (Indonesia), Sabah, and Sarawak (Malaysia).
Habitat The preferred natural habitats of T. beccarii are forest and freshwater wetlands, at altitudes from sea level to .
Description Dorsally, T. beccarii is reddish brown, with dark brown crossbands. The flanks have whitish spots. Ventrally, it is yellowish.
T. beccarii may attain a snout to vent length (SVL) of . The largest specimen measured by Boulenger had an SVL of , and a tail length of .Boulenger GA (1887). Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Second Edition. Volume III. ... Scincidæ .... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xii + 575 pp. + Plates I–XL. (Tropidophorus beccarii, pp. 360–361).
Diet T. beccarii preys upon water insects.Das I (2006). A Photographic Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Borneo. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Books. 144 pp. . (Tropidophorus beccarii, p. 118).
Reproduction T. beccarii is viviparous. Average litter size is four.
References
Further reading Goldberg SR (2017). "Reproduction in Beccari's Keeled Skinks, Tropidophorus beccarii (Squamata: Scincidae), from Borneo". Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 52: 65. Hikida T, Ota H (1994). "Sphenomorphus aquaticus Malkmus, 1991, a junior synonym of Tropidophorus beccarii (Peters, 1871) (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae)". Bonner Zoologische Beiträge 45 (1): 57–60. Peters W (1871). "Über neue Reptilien aus Ostafrika und Sarawak (Borneo), vorzüglich aus der Sammlung des Hrn. Marquis J. Doria zu Genua". Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1871: 566–581. (Tropidophorus beccarii, new species, p. 574). (in German).