Cercosaura argulus Peters, 1862

Diago-Toro, María F., García-Cobos, Daniela, Brigante-Luna, Giovanni D. & Vásquez-Restrepo, Juan D., 2021, Fantastic lizards and where to find them: cis-Andean microteiids (Squamata: Alopoglossidae & Gymnophthalmidae) from the Colombian Orinoquia and Amazonia, Zootaxa 5067 (3), pp. 377-400 : 386

Cercosaura argulus Peters, 1862

Distribution: Widely distributed in the Amazonia, including Brazil, French Guiana, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia ( Ribeiro-Júnior & Amaral 2017). In Colombia there are some populations reported along the trans-Andean region in the Cordillera Central and Oriental, the Magdalena River Valley, the Amazonia region and the south Orinoquia ( Fig. 4C , see Remarks).

Similar species: Cercosaura argulus is distinguished from its congeners in having 12–15 longitudinal rows of enlarged hexagonal dorsal scales forming transversal lines, and a divided frontonasal (dorsal hexagonal scales arranged in transverse and oblique series in C. hypnoides , eight longitudinal rows in the C. ocellata group, and a single frontonasal in the C. ocellata group and C. hypnoides ); and scales on flanks moderately smaller than dorsals, 27–35 scales around midbody, absence of preanal pores, and four ventral scales separated by the femoral pores (scales on flanks distinctly smaller than dorsals, 31–45 scales around midbody, preanal pores normally present, and two ventral scales separated by the femoral pores in C. oshaughnessyi ). See Ávila-Pires (1995), Ribeiro-Júnior & Amaral (2017), and Sturaro et al. (2018) for a detailed description.

Remarks: Cercosaura argulus and C. oshaughnessyi are currently considered two different evolutionary lineages ( Ávila-Pires 1995; Torres-Carvajal et al. 2015; Sturaro et al. 2017; Moravec et al. 2018), however, none of these studies have included samples from the trans-Andean region of Colombia where its type locality (near “Santafé de Bogotá ”). is located (Peters 1863). Based on the specimens we examined, we noticed the morphological characters provided by Ávila-Pires (1995) to differentiate between species are relatively well-conserved, with few individuals presenting three ventral scales between femoral pores, a previous condition non-described in the literature. Despite this, the presence of preanal pores and the relative size of the flank scales help to separate both groups in those cases. All the cis-Andean specimens we examined (n=17) agreed with C. oshaughnessyi , while the trans-Andean ones used for comparisons (n=8) with C. argulus , showing an allopatric distribution, however, their distribution in Colombia remains to be clarified. Given that we cannot corroborate the taxonomy used for the literature specimens, we present them together in the distribution map.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Distribution maps for the cis-Andean microteiid lizards in Colombia (Alopoglossidae + Gymnophthalmidae). Circles are examined specimens, while squares are records from literature (see Supplementary Files for specific references). Red arrows indicate new records for Colombia. Black arrows show a zoom in to regions where several records overlap. The light green shadow indicates the Orinoco River basin, and the dark green the Amazon River basin.