Introduction 



Several publications (Burt and Burt, 1933; Peters, 1967; Peters and Donoso-Barros, 

 1970; Miyata, 1982; Almendariz, 1992; Torres-Carvajal, 2000a; Uetz, 2001) provide lists of 

 Ecuadorian lizards. Of these, the most complete source of information is the checklist by 

 Peters (1967) because it provides both type specimen numbers (not found in other lists) 

 and bibliographic references. In addition, Peters (1967) and Peters and Donoso-Barros 

 (1970) are the only works that include taxonomic keys. On the other hand, Almendariz 

 (1992) and Torres-Carvajal (2000a) provided data on the general distribution of each 

 species within Ecuador; nevertheless, name of the species, author, and distribution is all 

 the information mentioned. None of these lists is a complete source of bibliographic, 

 taxonomic, and basic geographic information and most are now out of date. 



The following checklist includes updated information on the taxonomy and 

 distribution of all known lizards (151 species) in Ecuador, as well as all systematic 

 references that I was able to find for each taxon. Any absent reference is an oversight, and 

 exclusion does not mean that the work is irrelevant. 



Families and their included genera and species are arranged alphabetically. The 

 number of species known from Ecuador is given in parentheses after each familial name. 

 The following data are given for each species: current name; author; year of publication; 

 type specimen number(s); type locality (additional geographic information is indicated in 

 brackets where necessary); and distribution. For those species that were described in a 

 genus other than the current one, the original name is included. Systematic references and 

 general taxonomic comments are indicated where applicable. The distributions within 

 continental Ecuador used the geographical units of Coloma and Quiguango-Ubillus (2001) 

 that are presented in Table 1. 



Table 1. Geographical units of continental Ecuador. 







0-1000 m 



1000-2000 m 



2000-3000 m 



> 3000 m 



West of the Andes western tropical 

 East of the Andes eastern tropical 



western subtropical 

 eastern subtropical 



western temperate 

 eastern temperate 



High 

 Andean 



Throughout the checklist, the catalogue numbers of type specimen(s) are preceded by 

 the institutional codes: AMNH (American Museum of Natural History, New York), ANSP 

 (Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia), BMNH (British Museum of Natural History, 

 London), CAS (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), CAS-SU (Stanford 

 University Collection in the CAS), FMNH (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago), 

 ICN (Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Bogota), KU (University of Kansas, Natural History 

 Museum, Lawrence), MCZ (Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge), MECN (Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales, Quito), MHNG (Museum 



