An elusive new species of gymnophthalmid lizard (Cercosaurinae, Selvasaura) from the Andes of northern Peru

By

Echevarría, Lourdes Y.
Venegas, Pablo J.
García-Ayachi, Luis A.
Nunes, Pedro Murilo Sales

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021-7-27

Original Publication

Evolutionary systematics

Volume

5

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

177--187

Subjects

arboreality , arboreality , bromeliad , Gymnophthalmidae , Hemipenial morphology , Peruvian Yungas ecoregion , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Hamburg Centrum für Naturkunde (CeNak) 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.5.68520

 

Abstract

We describe a new species of Selvasaura from the montane forests of the eastern slopes of the Andes in northern Peru, based on external and hemipenial morphological characters and previous phylogenetic analyses. The new species can be differentiated from the other two Selvasaura species in having keeled dorsal scales usually flanked by longitudinal striations, in adults and juveniles; adult males with a yellow vertebral stripe bordered by broad dark brown stripes on each side and a unilobed hemipenis surrounded by the branches of the sulcus spermaticus. The description of the new species contributes information about new states of diagnostic characters of Selvasaura and natural history.