Enyalioides touzeti Torres-Carvajal et al. 2008

Torres-Carvajal, Omar, Etheridge, Richard & Queiroz, Kevin De, 2011, A systematic revision of Neotropical lizards in the clade Hoplocercinae (Squamata: Iguania), Zootaxa 2752, pp. 1-44 : 31

Enyalioides touzeti Torres-Carvajal et al. 2008

Proposed standard English name: Touzet’s woodlizards

Proposed standard Spanish name: lagartijas de palo de Touzet

Enyalioides touzeti Torres-Carvajal et al. (2008:228) . Holotype: EPN 10306, from “Finca La Envidia (3º3'0'S, 79º41'25''W, 433m) cerro Santa Marta, Cantón Ponce Enríquez, Provincia Azuay, Ecuador.”

Diagnosis. Enyalioides touzeti can be distinguished from other species of Enyalioides by having the following combination of characters: ventrals keeled; dorsals keeled; flank scales homogeneous in size; vertebral scales in neck region in adult males more than twice as high as vertebrals in pelvic region; gular region in males extensively covered by a dark gular patch; and dorsum and limbs without projecting scales.

Description. (1) dorsal head scales conical or multicarinate, strongly projecting dorsally; (2) posterior superciliaries not enlarged relative to adjacent scales; (3) scales on lateral edge of skull roof just posterior to superciliaries more projecting than adjacent scales; the projection is more pronounced in adults; (4) one or two enlarged pretympanic scales present; (5) gular scales conical or multicarinate, strongly projecting ventrally; (6) dorsal neck scales homogeneous in size, mostly conical or cycloid and slightly imbricate; lateral neck scales similar in size to dorsal neck scales, sometimes with a few enlarged conical scales; (7) vertebrals larger than adjacent dorsals, forming distinct raised middorsal crest that extends onto tail as a pair of crests; (8) nuchal region with continuous and single middorsal crest; (9) dorsals small, prominently keeled, imbricate, and homogeneous in size; (10) longitudinal row of raised, enlarged scales between dorsals and flank scales present and continuous; (11) scales on flanks homogeneous in size, smaller than dorsals; (12) ventrals keeled; (13) fore limb scales keeled dorsally and ventrally; (14) hind limb scales keeled dorsally and ventrally; scattered enlarged scales absent; dorsal scales of pes homogeneous in size; (15) caudals heterogeneous, increasing in size posteriorly on each segment (6–8 scales in lateral view), not modified as conspicuous spines ( Fig. 3 ); (16) tail compressed laterally. Meristic and morphometric characters are presented in Table 1 .

Coloration in life ( Fig. 4 ). Dorsal background olive green or light brown in adults (reddish brown in juveniles), normally with yellow spots in males and large dark blotches (some with background color in the center) in females; supralabials and infralabials normally yellow; light stripe extending from mouth commisure to tympanum in some specimens; light stripe between tympanum and scapular region in some specimens; chin and gular regions in males dark; venter light brown or whitish cream, with dark irregular marks in some specimens; iris reddish brown ( Torres-Carvajal et al. 2008).

Natural history. Individuals of Enyalioides touzeti have been found active on the ground or perching on horizontal branches up to 30 cm high during the day, or sleeping in a vertical position on tree fern branches at night ( Torres-Carvajal et al. 2008).

Distribution. Enyalioides touzeti occurs on the western slopes of the Andes in southern Ecuador at elevations of 300–700 m ( Fig. 10 ). This species is not known to occur in sympatry with other hoplocercines, although E. heterolepis and E. oshaughnessyi occur at nearby localities ( Figs. 6 and 7 , respectively).

Remarks. Torres-Carvajal & de Queiroz (2009) found that the mtDNA maximum-likelihood corrected genetic distance beween this species and Enyalioides oshaughnessyi was relatively low (0.03–0.047) and that E. touzeti was nested within E. oshaughnessyi in a phylogenetic tree including one specimen of E. touzeti and three specimens of E. oshaughnessyi . However, morphological evidence supports E. touzeti as a separate species, which suggests that this could be a case of fixed morphological differences evolving prior to the evolution of reciprocal monophyly of mtDNA alleles. Alternatively, E. oshaughnessyi as currently circumscribed might represent more than one species, in which case E. touzeti would not be nested within E. oshaughnessyi (see Remarks under E. oshaughnessyi above).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Caudal segments from the anterior third of the tail of ten species of Hoplocercinae in lateral view. (A) Enyalioides cofanorum, (B) E. heterolepis, (C) E. laticeps, (D) E. microlepis, (E) E. oshaughnessyi, (F) E. palpebralis, (G) E. praestabilis, (H) E. rubrigularis, (I) E. touzeti, and (J) Morunasaurus annularis. Scale bars = 5 mm. Illustration by D. Paucar.

FIGURE 4. Photographs of live lizards representing twelve species of Hoplocercinae.

FIGURE 6. Distribution of Enyalioides heterolepis (triangles) and E. laticeps (dots).

FIGURE 7. Distribution of Enyalioides microlepis (dots) and E. oshaughnessyi (triangles). A, Alto Tambo; B, Bilsa Ecological Reserve (see Remarks under E. oshaughnessyi).

FIGURE 10. Distribution of Enyalioides praestabilis (dots) and E. touzeti (triangles).