Alopoglossus tapajosensis RIBEIRO-JÚNIOR, SÁNCHEZ-MARTÍNEZ, MORAES, COSTA DE OLIVEIRA, CARVALHO, CHOUERI, WERNECK & MEIRI, 2021
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Alopoglossus tapajosensis
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| Higher Taxa | Alopoglossidae, Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Alopoglossus tapajosensis RIBEIRO-JÚNIOR, SÁNCHEZ-MARTÍNEZ, MORAES, COSTA DE OLIVEIRA, CARVALHO, CHOUERI, WERNECK & MEIRI 2021 Alopoglossus angulatus — MORAES et al. 2020: 696 (part) |
| Distribution | Brazil (Pará) Type locality: west bank of the middle Tapajós River, Itaituba, Pará, Brazil (−5.06, −56.87) |
| Reproduction | |
| Types | Holotype. INPA-H 41383, adult female, collected on 22 July 2012 at by Ana B. Barros, Dante Pavan and Leandro J. C. L. Moraes (Figures 12–14). Paratype. INPA-H 41382, adult male, collected on 11 December 2012 at the west bank of the middle Tapajós River, Itaituba, Pará, Brazil (−5.05, −56.87), by Dante Pavan and Leandro J. C. L. Moraes (Figure 15). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis. Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. is distinguished from all other species of Alopoglossus by the combination of the following characters: (1) non-granular, keeled, imbricate scales on medial and posterior sides of neck, varying from phylloid to mucronate with almost rounded posterior margins, in 10 transverse rows; (2) three pairs of chin shield scales; (3) third pair of chin shields in broad contact with each other anteromedially, and separated from each other on the posteriormost portions by small, imbricate scales; (4) smooth scales along midventral gular region; (5) feebly keeled scales on anterior temporal region; (6) strongly keeled scales on posterior temporal region; (7) smooth first supratemporal scale; (8) strongly keeled distally second supratemporal, clearly folding laterally toward the temporal region; (9) supratemporal scales in contact with each other, forming a long, straight suture between them; (10) 22 total number of femoral pores in males. Comparisons with other species. Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. atriventris, A. buckleyi, A. copii, A. embera, A. festae, A. lehmanni and A. viridiceps (in parentheses) in having non-granular, keeled, imbricate scales on medial and posterior sides of neck (vs. granular in A. atriventris and A. buckleyi; mostly granular in A. embera, A. festae, A. lehmanni and A. viridiceps; conical with apparent bare skin between conical scales in A. copii). It also differs from A. embera, A. festae and A. viridiceps in not having gulars arranged in two longitudinal rows (vs. a double longitudinal row of widened gular scales), and from A. lehmanni in having dorsal scales rhomboidal, in oblique rows (vs. dorsal scales hexagonal with parallel lateral edges, in transverse rows). From species of the A. angulatus group, Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. amazonius, A. gansorum sp. nov., A. indigenorum sp. nov., and A. meloi in having three pairs of chin shields (vs. four pairs of chin shields; Figure 5a–c). Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. andeanus and A. carinicaudatus in having 10 transverse rows of scales on sides of neck (vs. 11–12); it also differs from A. andeanus in having 22 femoral pores in males (vs. 24–28), and by absence of a distinct, enlarged medial pair of pregular scales; and from A. carinicaudatus in having smooth scales on the medial gular region (vs. strongly keeled). Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. collii in having 10 transverse scale rows on the sides of neck (vs. 8–9), feebly keeled scales on the anterior temporal region (vs. strongly keeled), and smooth ventral scales (vs. ventrals bluntly pointed, varying from smooth to feebly keeled). Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. angulatus in having prefrontals widely separated from each other by the contact between frontonasal and frontal (vs. prefrontals with a wide contact with each other medially), scales of the third pair of chin shields in broad contact with each other anteriorly (vs. scales of the third pair of chin shields completely separated from each other by small scales), feebly keeled scales on anterior temporal region (vs. strongly keeled), and 10 transverse rows of scales on the sides of the neck (vs. 6–9). Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. avilapiresae in having prefrontals widely separated from each other by the contact between frontonasal and frontal (vs. prefrontals with a long contact with each other medially), and in having 22 femoral pores in males (vs. 23–29). Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. differs from A. theodorusi in having feebly keeled scales on the anterior temporal region (vs. smooth), strongly keeled scales on the posterior temporal region (vs. feebly keeled, but with general aspect smooth), smooth scales on the medial gular region (vs. feebly pointed), and imbricate scales separating the posteriormost portions of the scales of the third pair of chin shields (vs. granular scales separating the second half portion [posterior] of the scales of the third pair of chin shields). Coloration of the holotype in life. Holotype INPA-H 41383, adult female (Figure 14), presenting differences between specimen in preservative (above) and in life: dorsal surfaces of head, body, limbs and tail dark brown; small dots speckled on head are black; the longitudinal series of dots from the posterior surface of interparietal/parietals to the base of tail is not evident in life as in preservative, due to the darker background coloration of the dorsal surface of neck and body. Lateral aspect of head, neck, body and tail light dark brown, becoming cream ventrally; anterolateral surface of head almost covered by black dots. The continuous dark- brown line extending posteriorly from the lateral surface of rostral reaching laterally the tail is black in life, and not evident posteriad the shoulders as in preservative; the cream stripe bordering dorsally the dark line is evident from the head to the shoulders and on the base of tail, inconspicuous along body. The ventrolateral cream line, from the supralabials under the eye to the tail, is not evident in life as in preservative. Iris vividly orange. Variation. Only one other specimen of Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov., the paratype INPA-H 41382 (male), is known. Little variation in meristic characters is found. It has the third pair of chin shields in broad contact with each other medially, with two small, imbricate scales separating each other only on their posteriormost portion. It has a continuous, well-separated series of femoral pores on each side; each pore between two or three scales; two pores on each side in preanal position; total number of pores 22, 11 on each side. Measurements of the paratype (in millimeters): SVL = 48.2; AGL=21.0;HD=5.6;HW=7.6;HL=10.0;NL=7.3;FL=13.3; HLL = 23.6; ShL = 7.8; TL = 16.7 + 69.0 (broken). Tables 3 and 4 present a summary of the variation in meristic characters and measurements, respectively. Coloration in preservative of the paratype INPA-H 41382 (male) (Figure 15): Dorsal surface of head, body and tail light brown; dorsal surfaces of head and neck densely speckled with very small dark-brown dots, except on lateral surfaces of rostral, frontonal, prefrontal, and frontal scales and dorsal surfaces of supratemporal scales; on rostral, frontonasals, prefrontals, and frontal the small dark-brown are concentrated on middorsal surface, on supraoculars they cover almost the entire surface of the scales, and on frontoparietals, parietals and interparietal they are sparsely speckled on the scales; on dorsal surface of neck the small dark-brown form large dark-brown dots; dorsal surface of body densely speckled with very small and large dark-brown dots; from the posterior surface of interparietal/ parietals, along neck to anterior body surface, the dark-brown dots merge to form an conspicuous dark-brown medial band, and on posterior body surface they are speckled, sparse, forming large dots or not; on the base of tail, the small dark-brown almost cover the entire dorsal surface; dorsal surface of limbs densely speckled with very small and large dark-brown dots. Lateral aspect of head, neck, body and tail light brown densely speckled with very small dark-brown dots (almost covering the entire surfaces), becoming cream ventrally. The dark-brown lateral surfaces bordered dorsally by a conspicuous cream dorsolateral stripe, from the posterior corner of eyes to the dorsolateral surface of the tail; the cream dorsolateral stripe conspicuous and wider on head, above limbs, and base of tail. A conspicuous white line extending posteriorly from the supralabials under the eye, passing through the lower part of the ear opening and neck, above the forelimbs insertion, ventral surface of flank, anterior and posterior surfaces of hind limbs, and on ventral surface of the tail; it is bordered ventrally by a conspicuous dark-brown stripe. Ventral surface white; large dark-brown dots on ventrolateral surface of head, and on the third pair of chin shields they are concentrated on scale sutures; on ventral surfaces of neck, body and preanal plate, the dark-brown dots are on anterior and lateral margins of all scales; on ventral surfaces of limbs, dark-brown dots scattered; on ventral surface of limbs, large dark-brown dots forming two longitudinal series of dots. For abbreviations see Darko et al. 2022. |
| Comment | Distribution: Alopoglossus tapajosensis sp. nov. is only known from two localities, ~1 km apart, on the west bank of the middle Tapajós River, south of the Amazon River, occurring in the state of Pará, Brazil (Figure 8 in RIBEIRO-JÚNIOR et al. 2021). |
| Etymology | The specific epithet is masculine and refers to the fact that this species is currently known only for the Tapajós River basin, in Brazilian Amazonia. |
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