Dactyloa punctata (Daudin, 1802)

Nicholson, Kirsten E., Crother, Brian I., Guyer, Craig & Savage, Jay M., 2012, 3477, Zootaxa 3477, pp. 1-108 : 21

Dactyloa punctata Species Group

Diagnosis. — Support for this group is provided by 96 apomorphies including eight morphological and 88 molecular ones. Two morphological features are unequivocal: size of interparietal scale decreased (7: h to n) and modal number of presacral vertebrae decreased (51: 0 to 1). Sixty-three molecular apomorphies are unequivocal (see Appendix II).

Definition. — Members of this species group are small to moderate-sized dactyloids (maximum snout-to-vent length in adult males 43 to 96 mm and 53 to 96 mm in adult females) that share the following combination of features: 1) inscriptional rib formula 4:0; 2) caudal autotomy septa present; 3) large splenial; 4) single or multiple rows of scales on the dewlap; 5) usually double rows of middorsal caudal scales.

Content. — Forty-four species are referred to this species group (see Appendix III).

Distribution. — Eastern Panama south through the Chocó of Colombia to Ecuador, including Gorgona Island; Andes of northern Colombia and western Venezuela; upland northern Venezuela; south on the Atlantic versant from eastern Venezuela through the Guayanas to Espiritu Santo State in eastern Brazil, and throughout the Amazon Basin in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil; upland eastern Peru ( Fig. 9).