Four new species of Stenocercus Duméril & Bibron, 1837 (Squamata, Iguania) from the Department of Amazonas in northeastern Peru

By

Venegas, Pablo J.
García-Ayachi, Luis A.
Chávez-Arribasplata, Juan C
Chávez, Germán
Wong, Iván
García Bravo, Antonio

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020-11-18

Original Publication

Evolutionary systematics

Volume

4

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

79--108

Subjects

Andes , herpetofauna , Marañón dry forests , montane forest , Morphology , Peruvian Yungas

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Hamburg Centrum für Naturkunde (CeNak) 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.4.57578

 

Abstract

The tropical Andes are known to be the richest and most diverse place on earth. This mountainous region covers almost one third of the Peruvian territory, and its herpetofauna remains poorly known. The lizard genusStenocercusDuméril & Bibron, 1837 contains 69 species and most of them occur in the tropical Andes, although some exist as high as 4000 m a.s.l. The examination of newly collected material from the Andes of northern Peru in the Department of Amazonas reveals four new species ofStenocercuswhich we describe below. Of these four new species, three inhabit the ecoregion of Peruvian Yungas at elevations of 1460 to 2370 m a.s.l., and one the Marañón dry forest ecoregion at elevations of 1340 to 1470 m a.s.l. Additionally, we provide new data about coloration, natural history and distribution of the poorly knownS. aculeatusO’Shaughnessy, 1879; and discuss the identity of some populations ofS. prionotusCadle, 2001 andS. scapularisBoulenger, 1901.