Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 28 Feb 2007

New Andean Species of Stenocercus (Squamata: Iguania) from the Eastern Cordillera in Colombia

Page Range: 56 – 61
DOI: 10.1643/0045-8511(2007)7[56:NASOSS]2.0.CO;2
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Abstract

A new species of Stenocercus is described from the eastern Andes of Colombia, Departamento Santander. The new species differs from other Stenocercus by the combination of the following characters: head scales strongly keeled and imbricate, parietals, interparietal, and postparietals distinct, canthals two, angulate temporals not projected, nostrils medial to canthus, tail compressed laterally, vertebral crest in adult males prominently projected, ventrals keeled, posthumeral and postfemoral mite pockets distinct, postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs in contact medially. Specimens of the new species have been misidentified as Stenocercus erythrogaster, which occurs allopatrically in the lowlands of northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

Se describe una especie nueva de Stenocercus de la cordillera oriental de Los Andes en Colombia, Departamento Santander. Esta especie se distingue de otras especies de Stenocercus por la combinación de los siguientes caracteres: escamas de la cabeza fuertemente quilladas e imbricadas, parietales, interparietal y postparietales bien definidas, dos cantales, temporales angulares no proyectadas, abertura nasal medial al canthus, cola lateralmente comprimida, cresta vertebral proyectada en machos adultos, ventrales quilladas, bolsillos posthumerales y postfemorales presentes, costillas postxifosternales en contacto medialmente. Los especímenes de la especie nueva habían sido erróneamente identificados como Stenocercus erythrogaster, una especie distribuida alopátricamente en las tierras bajas al norte de Colombia y noroeste de Venezuela.

Copyright: 2007 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
Figure 1
Figure 1

Stenocercus santander, holotype, UIS-R 478, male, 96 mm SVL.


Figure 2
Figure 2

Stenocercus santander, holotype, UIS-R 478, male. (A) Dorsal, (B) lateral, and (C) ventral views of the head. Scale bar  =  5 mm.


Figure 3
Figure 3

Distribution of Stenocercus erythrogaster (circles) and S. santander (squares).


Contributor Notes

Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Dyche Hall—1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561, Present address: Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560. E-mail: torreso@si.edu

Received: 05 Dec 2005
Accepted: 13 Sept 2006
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