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{{Short description|Species of lizard}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=January 2009}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Chilka spotted skink
| image =
| image_caption = Head scalation
| status = CR
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 20 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Bauer, A. |author2=Srinivasulu, C. |author3=Srinivasulu, B. |author4=Roy, A.D. |author5=Murthy, B.H.C.K. |author6=Molur, S. |author7=Pal, S. |author8=Mohapatra, P. |author9=Agarwal, I. |author10=Sondhi, S. |date=2020 |title=''Barkudia insularis'' |volume=2020 |article-number=e.T2593A176084098 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T2593A176084098.en |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref>
| genus = Barkudia
| species = insularis
| authority = [[Nelson Annandale|Annandale]], 1917
| range_map = Barkudia insularis distribution (colored).png
}}

[[Image:Chilika lake.png|right|thumb|200px|Map of [[lake Chilka]].]]

'''''Barkudia insularis''''', commonly known as the '''Madras spotted skink''', is a [[critically endangered]] limbless [[skink]] which was described in 1917 by [[Nelson Annandale]] and rediscovered in the wild in 2003. Little is known about the species but it was previously believed to be found only in the [[mangrove]] habitats near [[Barkuda Island]] in [[Chilka Lake]], [[Odisha]], [[India]].<ref>{{cite journal |first= P.K |last= Behera| title= Ecotech Education and Ecosystem Conservation of the Lake Chilika, Orissa |url= http://www.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/lake2006/programme/programme/proceedings/fullpaper_pdfs/Prashanth.pdf}}</ref> Later observations in adjoining parts of Odisha indicate a larger range within the state.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=March 15, 2022 |first=Minati |last=Singha |title=Rare, endangered legless lizard spotted for 4th time since 1917 in Odisha |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/rare-endangered-legless-lizard-spotted-for-4th-time-since-1917-in-odisha/articleshow/90233675.cms |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref> The lizard looks like a large [[earthworm]] and lives in the [[subsoil]] and probably feeds on small [[arthropod]]s.

The [[holotype]] was found in loose earth near the roots of a banyan tree of Badakuda Island of Chilka lake in 1917. Only four reports of the species have been made since its description, all within Odisha: observations in 1917 and 2003 at Barkuda Island in Chilka Lake, a 1979 observation in [[Nandankanan Zoological Park]], and a 2022 observation made near the vicinity of [[Buguda]]. The 2022 observation marked the first photograph taken of a live individual of the species.<ref name=":0" />

==Taxonomic description==
''Barkudia'' (Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. xiii, 1917 p. 20 - type species ''insularis'') is characterised by the palatine bones not meeting on the mid-line of the palate, which is toothless; nostril between the nasal and the rostral in an emargination of the latter; supranasals present; pre-frontals and frontoparietals absent; body elongated; no limbs;

''Barkudia insularis'' has the snout depressed, obtusely pointed, projecting strongly beyond the labial margin; rostral large, emarginate laterally to receive the nasal shield; supranasals large, in contact with one another and with the first labial; fronto-nasal broader than long, larger than the frontal; interparietal much larger than the frontal; parietals narrow, obliquely placed, in contact with one another behind it; 3 supraoculars, the first entering the supraciliary margin, the first two in contact with the frontal; 1 large supraciliary in the angle formed by the 3 suboculars; nasal shield comparatively large, the nostril at its anterior extremity; 1 large loreal; a preocular; lower eyelid composed of 2 or 3 opaque scales; upper eyelid vestigial; 4 supralabials, the third below the eye; ear-opening minute; a singly azygous postmental; body elongate with 140 ventral scales between the post-mental and pre-anal plates; 20 smooth scales round the mid body. Tip of the tail blunt and not much narrower than the base of the tail.

Light brown above, each dorsal scale with a central dot; altogether there form 12 or 14 longitudinal lines down the back and along the tail; lower parts whitish; top of head clouded with brown. The type was dug from loose earth at the root of a banyan tree. A second was seen in the same locality by [[Frederic Henry Gravely]] in the rainy season of 1919. It burrowed rapidly into the ground.<ref>Smith, M. A. 1941 Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia. p. 352-353</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Notes==
* Annandale, N. 1917 [http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/records/013/01/0017-0021.pdf A new Genus of Limbless skinks from an Island in the Chilka Lake] Rec.Ind. Mus. 13: 20
* Biswas, S. or Acharjyo, L.N. (1979) A Note on the Distribution of ''Barkudia insularis'', a Rare Limbless Lizard from Orissa J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 76: 524–525
* Das, Indraneil; Dattagupta, Basudeb 1997 Rediscovery of the holotypes of ''Ophisops jerdoni'' Blyth, 1853 and ''Barkudia insularis'' Annandale, 1917. Hamadryad 22 (1): 53-55

==External links==
* {{NRDB species|genus=Barkudia|species=insularis}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080216081307/http://www.chilika.com/rediscover.htm Rediscovery]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q309309}}

[[Category:Barkudia]]
[[Category:Lizards of India]]
[[Category:Endemic reptiles of India]]
[[Category:Reptiles described in 1917]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Nelson Annandale]]

Barkudia insularis - Revision history

Vikipft at 07:06, 26 March 2026