Holcosus undulatus (Wiegmann, 1834)

Castiglia, Riccardo, Flores-Villela, Oscar Alberto, Bezerra, Alexandra M. R., Gornung, Ekaterina, Annesi, Flavia, Munoz-Alonso, Luis Antonio & Solano, Emanuela, 2020, Detection of cryptic diversity in lizards (Squamata) from two Biosphere Reserves in Mesoamerica, Comparative Cytogenetics 14 (4), pp. 613-638 : 613

Holcosus undulatus (Wiegmann, 1834)

Note.

Meza-Lázaro and Nieto-Montes de Oca (2015), in a molecular phylogenetic study, proposed the elevation of 9 of the 12 H. undulatus subspecies to species rank. However, this change has not been widely accepted by other authors. Therefore, we formally use the previous classification, but we also take in account the results of the Meza-Lazaro and Nieto-Montes de Oca (2015) study.

Distribution.

The species is distributed along both coasts of Mexico from southern Nayarit to northern Costa Rica Pacific coast) and from southern Tamaulipas to central Nicaragua (Atlantic coast) including the peninsula of Yucatan.

Samples.

RCMX77 (female*) from La Sepultura, Chiapas, Mexico.

DNA taxonomy.

The MT-ND2 sequence (556-bp) obtained from the individual from Chiapas has a 99% match to two GenBank sequences of H. undulatus parvus Barbour et Noble, 1915 (KR058051 and KR058063). According to Meza-Lazaro and Nieto-Montes de Oca (2015), this subspecies, distributed in the Pacific coast region of Southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala, should be elevated to species rank.

Chromosomes.

The specimen analyzed shows a 2n = 50 chromosome number (Fig. 5C ). The karyotype comprises a gradual series of acrocentric chromosomes (26M + 24m), as previously described in Castiglia et al. (2010) for H. undulatus from Chamela, Biological Station (Jalisco). In the genus Holcosus , only H. festivus (Chiapas, Castiglia et al. 2010) and H. undulatus (Jalisco, present data) have been karyotyped. In Cnemidophorus , a possible sister group of Holcosus ( Pyron et al. 2013), 2n = 50 chromosome complement with one biarmed pair has been reported ( Carvalho et al. 2015). Different species of Kentropyx Spix, 1825 and Ameiva show a 2n = 50 all-acrocentric karyotype, similar to the one found in Holcosus ( Carvalho et al. 2015). Since these genera span the entire phylogenetic tree of Teiidae , we hypothesize that 2n = 50 all-acrocentric karyotype may represent an ancestral condition. However, to reveal more reliable pattern of chromosomal change, an ancestral state analysis combining karyotype and molecular phylogeny should be made (e.g. Castiglia et al. 2013a).

Figures

Figure 5. Karyotypes of A Phyllodactylus sp. 3 (2 n = 38, RCMX 69 male) B Holcosus festivus (2 n = 50, RCMX 224 female) C Holcosus undulatus parvus (2 n = 50, RCMX 77 female) D Aspidoscelis deppii (2 n = 52, RCMX 76 female).