SQUAMATA

Mata-Silva, Vicente, García-Padilla, Elí, Rocha, Arturo, Desantis, Dominic L., Johnson, Jerry D., Ramírez-Bautista, Aurelio & Wilson, Larry David, 2021, A Reexamination of the Herpetofauna of Oaxaca, Mexico: Composition Update Physiographic Distribution, and Conservation Commentary, Zootaxa 4996 (2), pp. 201-252 : 203-204

SQUAMATA

Anguidae

Abronia cuetzpali Campbell et al., 2016 . This arboreal alligator lizard was described as new from an elevation of 2,150 m from near San Miguel Suchixtepec in the Sierra de Miahuatlán, two km west of the Río Molino in the Sierra Madre del Sur physiographic region.

Dactyloidae

Norops purpuronectes Gray et al., 2016 . This species of anole, originally placed in the genus Anolis , was described in part from elevations of 185–670 m in lowland tropical rainforest in the vicinity of Chalchijapa in the Chimalapas area of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas physiographic region.

Scincidae

Plestiodon longiartus García-Vázquez et al., 2021 . This species of skink was described from specimens collected in pine forest, pine-oak forest, and cloud forest in the Sierra Madre del Sur physiographic region, in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

Plestiodon lotus Pavón-Vázquez et al., 2017 . This species of skink was described as new based in part on material from elevations of 1,629 to 1,720 m in the upper reaches of the Depresión del Balsas (DB) in extreme western Oaxaca.

Xenosauridae

Xenosaurus arboreus Nieto-Montes de Oca et al., 2016 . This knob-scaled lizard was elevated to species level from subspecies level. This species is distributed in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas (SMC) physiographic region of southeastern Oaxaca.

Colubridae

Salvadora gymnorhachis Hernández-Jiménez et al., 2019 . This new species of patch-nosed snake was confused originally with S. intermedia but described as new based on material found at elevations from 1,760 to 2,364 m in pine oak forest of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca and Montañas y Valles del Centro physiographic regions of central Oaxaca .

Dipsadidae

Cenaspis aenigma Campbell et al., 2018 . This dipsadid snake was described as a new genus and species from the highlands of western Chiapas. The type locality was referred to as ‘‘La Loma,’’ located some 20–25 km (by road) WNW of Rizo de Oro (sometimes known as Nueva Tenochtitlán), Chiapas, Mexico, and which lies to the NNW of Colonia Rodolfo Figueroa on the western slopes of Cerro El Baúl. Although Lamoreaux et al. (2015) and Rovito et al. (2017) provided arguments for placing this site in the state of Chiapas, this locality, in fact, belongs to Bienes Comunales of San Miguel Chimalapa, Oaxaca, (Miguel Ángel García Aguirre; Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste A.C.; Comité por la Defensa y Conservación de Los Chimalapas). Additionally, Cerro Baúl also has been stated in the past to be located in the State of Oaxaca ( Johnson et al. 2010, 2015; Lynch & Wake, 1989). Consequently, we consider this species as a Chimalapan-Oaxacan endemic.

Chersodromus australis Canseco-Márquez et al., 2018 . This small dipsadid snake was described as a new species endemic to Oaxaca from 350 m in lowland tropical rainforest in the Chimalapas area of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas (SMC) of the extreme eastern portion of the state.

Leptotyphlopidae

Epictia schneideri Wallach, 2016 . This new species of thread snake was described in part from material from the Sierra Madre del Sur (SMS), Valles Centrales de Oaxaca (VCO), and Montañas y Valles del Occidente (MVO) of Oaxaca, as well as Guerrero.

Viperidae

Crotalus ehecatl Carbajal-Márquez et al., 2020 . Recent systematic work on the Crotalus durissus species group involved the restructuring of the group in Mexico. As a result, C. culminatus was restricted in distribution to north of Oaxaca and C. simus to the south of this state. Material examined was allocated to two new species, C. mictlantecuhtli in Veracruz and C. ehecatl along the Pacific coastal portion of the state (and adjacent Chiapas). Importantly, although the authors mentioned that the distribution of C. mictlantecuhtli might include Oaxaca, material from the Atlantic versant of Oaxaca and presumed contact zones between these two taxa was not examined (Carbajal-Márquez, personal communication).

Ophryacus smaragdinus . Grünwald et al., 2015. This species of pitviper was described in part from material collected at 1,360 m from the Sierra de Juárez in northern Oaxaca .

In this section, we discuss 23 species added to the herpetofauna of Oaxaca: