Selvasaura candesi, Chávez & García-Ayachi & Catenazzi, 2023

Chavez, German, Garcia-Ayachi, Luis A. & Catenazzi, Alessandro, 2023, A new species of Microteiid Lizard (Gymnophthalmidae, Cercosaurini, Selvasaura) from a remote area in the Peruvian Andes, Evolutionary Systematics 7 (1), pp. 123-132 : 123

Selvasaura candesi sp. nov.

Figs 2 , 3 , 4

Type material.

Holotype. Peru • Adult male; Huánuco Department, Marañón Province, 11 km SW San Pedro de Chonta, on the road to Antaquero Community; 8°42'59.6"S, 76°57'22.3"W; 2,458 m; 15 Oct. 2018; G. Chávez leg.; CORBIDI 21865 (Figs 2A, B , 3A, B , 4 ).

Paratypes. Peru • 1 ♂ adult, 1 juvenile, collected with the holotype; G. Chávez leg.; CORBIDI 21866 (Figs 2C, D , 3C, D ), CORBIDI 21867 (Fig. 2E, F ).

Diagnosis.

A medium sized lizard (adult males SVL 28.3-49.5 mm, n=2) characterized by the following combination of morphological features: 1) body slender, dorsoventrally depressed in males, females unknown; 2) head slightly short, pointed, about 1.6 times longer than wide; 3) ear opening distinct, moderately recessed; 4) nasals separated by an undivided frontonasal; 5) prefrontals, frontal, frontoparietals, parietals, interparietal, and postparietals present; 6) parietals polygonal, slightly longer than wide; 7) supraoculars four, anteriormost fused (2 individuals) or not (1 individual) with anteriormost superciliary; 8) superciliary series complete, consisting in four scales; 9) nasal plate divided posterior to nostril; 10) loreal present, in contact with second supralabial; 11) supralabials seven; 12) genials in four pairs, first and second pairs in contact; 13) collar present, containing 9-10 enlarged scales; 14) dorsals in 40-41 transverse rows, rectangular, nearly twice as long as wide, subimbricate, keeled; 15) ventrals in 24-25 transverse rows; square to rectangular, juxtaposed, smooth; 17) scales around midbody 38-43; 18) lateral scales at midbody reduced in size, in 8-9 rows; 19) limbs pentadactyl, all digits clawed;20) forelimb reaching anteriorly the third supralabial; 21) subdigital lamellae under Finger IV 14-16; 22) subdigital lamellae under Toe IV 19-21; 23) femoral pores per thigh 9-10 in males; 24) rectangular preanal scales large, four in number; 25) tail about 0.4 times longer than body; 26) caudals larger than wide, subimbricate, rugose dorsally, smooth ventrally; 27) lower palpebral disc transparent, undivided; 28) dorsal surface of head, body and limbs brown with black speckling, dorsal surface of tail pale brown to reddish brown; a thick yellowish brown vertebral stripe on dorsum, a row of 1-2 faded black rings on each flank; throat creamy white with minute black spots or blotches within each scale; belly yellow (creamy white in juveniles) with minute black spots within each scale; ventral surfaces of limbs yellow or yellowish orange; anal area saffron yellow or reddish yellow; tail red or reddish orange in males (pale red in juveniles) with fine black speckling; iris pale orange in males.

Differential diagnosis.

Selvasaura candesi sp. nov. differs from S. brava by having keeled dorsal scales in adults (vs rugose), a larger number of dorsal rows 40-41 (vs 33-36), a higher number of lateral scales 8-9 (vs 6-7), a larger number of scales around midbody 38-43 (vs 32-34), a yellow belly in adult males (vs creamy white), and black minute spots or small blotches within every ventral scale (vs grey speckles). The new species differs from S. almendarizae ( Torres-Carvajal et al. 2021) and S. evasa ( Echevarría et al. 2021) by having a higher number of dorsal scale rows (40-41 vs 25-32 in S. almendarizae and 33-38 in S. evasa ), keeled dorsal scales (vs striated in S. almendarizae ), a higher number of lateral scales with 8-9 rows at the level of midbody (vs 5 in S. almendarizae and 0-3 in S. evasa ) and by bearing a yellow belly in adult males (vs cream in S. evasa ).

Description of the holotype.

Body slender; legs moderately long, tail complete; head length 24.0% of SVL, head width 15.7% of SVL; snout pointed, moderately long, eye-nose distance 29.6% of HL; neck distinct, collar present; head scales smooth; rostral scale wider than long, slightly higher than adjacent supralabials, in contact with frontonasal, nasals, and first supralabials; frontonasal pentagonal, slightly wider than long; prefrontals present, in wide contact medially; frontal longer than wide, in contact with second and third supraoculars; frontoparietals pentagonal, longer than wide, in contact with third and fourth supraoculars, parietals and interparietal; supraoculars four, not in contact with superciliars; superciliary series complete, consisting of four shields; anteriormost superciliar not fused with anteriormost supraocular, in contact with prefrontal and loreal anteriorly; parietals in contact with frontoparietals, fourth supraocular, dorsalmost postocular, one temporal and two postparietals; interparietal longer than wide, in contact with three postparietals posteriorly; postparietals five; nasal shield divided posterior to nostril, in contact with first and second supralabial; frenocular triangular, in contact with loreal anteriorly, anteriormost superciliar dorsally, second and third (at one point) supralabial ventrally, suboculars posteriorly, on both sides; palpebral disc oval, translucent, undivided; postoculars three; temporals polygonal, supratympanic temporal one; supralabials six, fourth below the centre of eye; infralabials six; mental wider than long, in contact with first infralabials; postmental single, pentagonal, in contact with first and second infralabials; genials in four pairs, first and second pair in contact medially, first pair in contact with second and third infralabials, second pair in contact with third and fourth infralabials, third pair in contact with fourth and fifth infralabials, fourth pair in contact with fifth and sixth infralabials; gulars 14; plates along collar 10; dorsal scales homogenous, rectangular, longer than wide, keeled, in 40 transverse rows; dorsals (enlarged scales) around body at fifth transverse ventral scale row 10, at 10th transverse ventral scale row 13, at 15th transverse ventral scale row 15; laterals (smaller than dorsals) at fifth transverse ventral scale row 9-10, at 10th transverse ventral scale row 9-8, at 15th transverse ventral scale row 10-10; ventrals squared to rectangular, juxtaposed, in 24 transverse rows; longitudinal rows of ventrals at midbody 10; scales around midbody 43; anterior preanal plate scales two; posterior preanal plate scales four; scales on tail rectangular, subimbricate, slightly keeled dorsally at tail base, smooth and juxtaposed ventrally; subdigital lamellae under Finger IV 15/15 (4/5 distal lamellae single and smooth, remaining lamellae divided in two subconical segments); subdigital lamellae under Toe IV 22/21 (4/4 distal lamellae single and smooth, remaining lamellae divided in two subconical segments); femoral pores 9/10.

Measurements of the holotype (in mm): SVL 49.5; TL 38.5; HL 12.3; HW 7.7; HD 5.4; EN 3.6; FLL 12.0; HLL 19.7; AGD 24.8.

Colouration of the holotype in life

(Fig. 2A, B ). Head, body, and limbs pale brown dorsally with black speckling, dorsal surface of tail pale brown with reddish brown lateral areas; a pale brown vertebral stripe bordered laterally by black discontinuous stripes (nearly inconspicuous as they run towards the tip of the tail), vertebral stripe about two dorsal scales wide extending ontohead anteriorly and the tail caudally; a discontinuous black dorsolateral stripe extending on each side from above tympanum to base of tail; a discontinuous black stripe running from postoculars, across parietals, reaching neck and running longitudinally below black borders of the vertebral stripe, and disappearing at the level of hindlimbs; a black stripe extending from post oculars to insertion of forelimbs; two black rings on each flank; ventrolateral parts of flanks whitish brown; throat creamy white with minute dark spots inside the individual scales; belly yellow with dark spots within each scale; ventral surfaces of forelimbs creamy yellow, ventral surfaces of hindlimbs saffron yellow, anal area saffron yellow, base of the tail reddish orange, rest of tail aurora red or red; iris pale orange.

Colouration of the holotype in preservative.

General colouration pattern is as described for the holotype in life. The dorsal colouration on head, body and tail is dark brown with black markings. The throat is creamy yellow, belly greyish white, tail pinkish yellow. Ventral surfaces of limbs are yellow.

Hemipenial morphology.

The completely everted, left hemipenis is a bicapitate organ measuring about 5.5 mm (Fig. 4A-D ). Its shape is conical, unilobed, with proximal region distinctly thinner than the distal region. The hemipenial body does not possess filiform appendages. A total of sixteen, mostly continuous flounces extend across the entire asulcate face. The three most proximal flounces are transversally oriented, the other thirteen are laterally oriented, with a central vertex directed distally. The asulcate central nude is narrow. Lateral body flounces ornamentation consists in a series of comb-like spicules over the distal part of the hemipenial body. Sulcus spermaticus begins at the hemipenial base and extends in a straight broad line until it divides into two branches at the distal third of the organ. The sulcus spermaticus is bordered laterally by fleshy nude areas which expand in two branches, which are divided by a central fleshy fold.

Variations.

General scutellation data of the type series is given in Table 1 . Sexual dimorphism is unknown. We noticed some variation among the type series: male CORBIDI 21866 (Fig. 3C, D ) has the anteriormost supraocular fused to the anteriormost superciliar on both sides. Also, the same specimen bears a single black ring at the level of the insertion of forelimbs (Fig. 2C, D ). Regarding colouration, juvenile CORBIDI 21867 (Fig. 3E, F ) has a colour pattern consisting of pale brown tones on dorsum, paler than adults, vertebral and dorsolateral stripes fading at the middle of dorsum, venter creamy white with minute black spots inside individual scale and tail reddish yellow.

Etymology.

The specific epithet “candesi” refers to the acronym CANDES (Consultores Asociados en Naturaleza y Desarrollo) in recognition of their efforts supporting the herpetological research in Peruvian territory.

Distribution, natural history, and threat status.

This species is known only from the type locality, a montane forest in the upper basin of Chontayacu River at 2,400 m a.s.l. in the western slopes of the eastern Andes of central Peru (Fig. 5 ). The type locality is a deforested area (Fig. 6B ) at the transition between cattle pastures and patches of montane forest. We found all specimens around 11:00 a.m. under stones alongside a stream surrounded by grass and small herbs. No other sympatric reptile was found. We noticed a heavy presence of livestock in nearby areas, as well as patches of burnt grassland, which is triggered by farmers to regrow grass plants ( Festuca , Stipa spp.) and to open new pasture grounds for cattle. Despite these threats, the paucity of data on the geographic distribution of this species prevents further assessment of its threat status. Therefore, we recommend the Data Deficient category for the IUCN Red List. Future surveys should document the range of the species and assess the importance of potential threats.

Figures

Figure 2. Dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views of (A, B) the male holotype (CORBIDI 21865, SVL = 49.5 mm), (C, D) male paratype (CORBIDI 21866, SVL = 49.1 mm), and (E, F) juvenile paratype (CORBIDI 21867, SVL = 28.3 mm) of Selvasaura candesi sp. nov.

Figure 3. Heads in lateral (left) and dorsal (right) view of adult males of Selvasaura candesi sp nov. A, B. Holotype, CORBIDI 21865, SVL = 49.5 mm; C, D. Paratype, CORBIDI 21866, SVL = 49.1 mm. Red arrows show variation in the condition of anteriormost supraocular: A, B. Not in contact with superciliaries; C, D. Fused to anteriormost superciliary.

Figure 4. Left hemipenis of the holotype (CORBIDI 21865) showing: A. Asulcate; B. Left; C. Sulcate, and D. Right side of the organ. Scale bar: 2.5 mm.

Figure 5. Map showing the distribution of the Selvasaura candesi sp. nov. (red star), Selvasaura almendarizae (fucsia circles), Selvasaura brava (yellow circle), Selvasaura evasa (blue circles) and an unnamed Ecuadorian population of Selvasaura (green circle) mentioned by Torres-Carvajal et al. (2016).

Figure 6. Photographs of the area where Selvasaura candesi sp. nov. was found. A. Panoramic view of the mountains and the cloud forests at the type locality in the western Andes of central Peru; B. Habitat and microhabitat (shown by red arrow) of S. candesi alongside the Chontayacu River, Huanuco Department, Peru.