Mabuya nigropalmata

Miralles, Aurélien, Chaparro, Juan Carlos & Harvey, Michael B., 2009, Three rare and enigmatic South American skinks, Zootaxa 2012, pp. 47-68 : 50-53

Rediscovery of Mabuya nigropalmata and designation of a lectotype

Until recently, Mabuya nigropalmata was known from the five syntypes and its original description. The type series was collected from two different localities, approximately 1000 km appart: four specimens (all originally numbered NRM 23258, formerly 3259) came from Bolivia (“ San Fermín, N. W. Bolivia, in the forest district ” = San Fermín, Provincia Franz Tamayo, Departamento de La Paz, Bolivia; 13.9055556° S, 68 1.9722222° W); whereas the fifth (NRM 23259, formerly 3259) came from western Brazil (“ Brazil, Amazonas, Rio Curuca, tributary to R. Javary ”). Two different collectors, ten years apart, collected the specimens (N. Holmgren in 1904 and V. M. de Oliviera in 1914, respectively). All of the specimens were deposited at the Sweedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm (NRM). Inspite of considerable fieldwork, especially in adjacent southern Peru, this species seemed to have never been collected subsequently (Ávila- Pires, 1995). Moravec & Aparicio (2004) recently rediscovered the species at Nacebe (11° 00’ S, 67° 25’W, 200 m a.s.l., left bank of the Rio Orthon, Provincia Abuna, Departamento Pando, Bolivia, Fig. 1 a). The following year, one of us (JCC) collected two specimens from Manu National Park, Madre de Dios, Peru: MHNC 5718 ( Fig. 1 b, 2), sector Cocha Salvador (12˚00’12.57”S, 71˚14’07.90”W), 329 m a.s.l, 13 October 2005; MHNC 5121, sector of Cocha Juarez (12˚09’41.86”S, 71˚01’57.51”W), 316 m a.s.l, 20 November 2005. Both the new Bolivian and Peruvian specimens exhibit characters diagnostic of M. nigropalmata : prefrontals in contact, frontoparietals fused (hardly verifiable in MHNC 5121, given its poor state of preservation), multiple pairs of nuchals, an acute snout, five subequal supraciliaries on both sides (not verifiable MHNC 5121), fewer than 30 scales around midbody, and very dark palms and soles covered by many small granules ( Figs 1 , 2 ; Table 2).

(1) Data based both on Ávila-Pires (1995) and material examined in this study. (2) Not counted because of scale damage.

Additionaly, another specimen of Mabuya nigropalmata was recently discovered, its photograph having been published in the virtual guide of “ Reptiles del Centro Río Los Amigos, Manu y Tambopata, Perú ” (von May et al. 2006, plate 3, fig. 44), but it was misidentified as M. nigropunctata . Overall, this specimen has a 1. We located San Fermín using the Falling Rain gazateer (Falling Rain Genomics, 2006) and a recent Bolivian atlas ( Quiroga, 1999). There seems to be some disagreement as to whether Fermín has an accent. In the gazateer, the name is spelled both ways, whereas, the accent was omitted by Quiroga (1999). Presumably, the name of this town honors Saint Fermin of Amiens and, at least originally, retained the accent as it does in modern Spain. San Fermín is situated within Parque Nacional Madidi in a valley surrounded by low mountains on the humid, eastern slopes of the Andes and across the Río Tambopata from the Peruvian Parque Nacional Bahuaja-Sonene. L. Gonzales A. (from the Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz) visited San Fermín in 2004; he recorded an elevation of 911 m, latitude 14 ° 00´8.5” S, and longitude 68 ° 57´15” W. At present, the town is inhabited by about 30 families. Gonzales did not collect any specimens of Mabuya , but, in the vicinity of San Fermín, found reptiles typically associated with humid forests of the lowlands and foothill of northern Bolivia such as Cercosaura ocellata, Enyalioides palpebralis, Kentropyx altamazonica, Imantodes cenchoa, Dipsas indica, and Xenodon severus .

darker dorsal pattern than the other known specimens (with larger and more numerous black dots on the back), however, diagnostic characters of M. nigropalmata (prefrontals in contact, frontoparietals fused, multiple pairs of nuchal scales) are visible in the photograph. All these recent rediscoveries provide irrefutable proof that M. nigropalmata is really a South American species and that it is still present in occidental Amazonia, even if it seems to be rare or, at least, to have a restricted and patchy distribution.

It seems appropriate to designate NRM 23258A (San Fermín, La Paz, Bolivia, collected in 1904 by N. Holmgren) as the lectotype of Mabuya nigropalmata ( Fig. 3 ). This specimen is in excellent condition and appears to be the specimen photographied by Horton (1973:76, his figure 3) and illustrated by Ávila-Pires (1995: 583, her figure 201).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Living specimens of Mabuya nigropalmata from (A) Nacebe, Provincia Abuna, Departamento Pando, Bolivia (NMP 6 V 72186), and (B) Manu National Park, Peru (MHNC 5718). Photographs by J. Moravec and J. C. Chaparro, respectively.

FIGURE 2. Drawings of a recently collected specimen of Mabuya nigropalmata (MHNC 5718): (A) lateral view of the head and (B) dorsal view of the anterior part of the body.

FIGURE 3. Photographs of the lectotype of Mabuya nigropalmata (NRM 23258 A). Photographs by B. Kajrup.