Ameiva praesignis (BAIRD & GIRARD, 1852)
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Ameiva praesignis
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| Higher Taxa | Teiidae, Teiinae, Gymnophthalmoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Giant Ameiva, Amazon Racerunner |
| Synonym | Cnemidophorus praesignis BAIRD & GIRARD 1852: 129 Ameiva praesignis — COPE 1862: 67 Ameiva praesigna — BOCOURT 1874: 265 (unjustified emendation) Amiva praesignis — COPE 1875: 157 Cnemidophorus maculatus FISCHER 1879: 95 Ameiva surinamensis — BOULENGER (1885: 22; in part). Ameiva ameiva maculata —BARBOUR & NOBLE (1915: 467) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — BARBOUR & NOBLE (1915: 468) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — BURT & BURT 1931: 305; in part) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — MARCUZZI (1950: 102) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — TEST et al. (1966: 19) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — DONOSO-BARROS (1968: 115) Ameiva ameiva praesignis — PETERS & DONOSO-BARROS (1970: 20). Ameiva ameiva vogli MÜLLER 1929: 100 Ameiva ameiva ornata MÜLLER & HELLMICH 1940: 1790). Ameiva ameiva ornata — PETERS & DONOSO-BARROS 1970: 19 Ameiva ameiva fischeri PETERS & DONOSO-BARROS (1970: 19; nom. subst.). Ameiva ameiva — ECHTERNACHT 1971: 14 Ameiva ameiva praesignis — KLUGE 1984: 21 Ameiva praesignis — UGUETO & HARVEY 2011: 154 |
| Distribution | Panama, Venezuela (Trujillo etc. [Esqueda & La Marca 1999]), Colombia (Santa Marta) USA (introduced to Florida) Type locality: Chagres, Panama. Type locality: Sabana Larga, Colombia [maculatus] Type locality: Barinas, Zamora, Venezuela [vogli] Type locality: La Puerta, Fusagasugá, Colombia, 1200 m [ornata] |
| Reproduction | oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Syntypes: USNM 5519, UMMZ 3823 Holotype: ZMH (Zoologisches Museum of Hamburg) [maculatus] Holotype: ZSM 1/1929, apparently lost during WWII, fide Franzen and Glaw, 2007 [vogli] Holotype: ZSM 118/1937; not mentioned in Franzen and Glaw, 2007 [ornata] |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: A medium-sized Ameiva distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) maximum SVL in males 243 mm; (2) smooth dorsal head scales; (3) frontal single; (4) frontoparietal and parietal plates in contact with interparietals; (5) 15–36 (both sides) scales, usually in a single row, between supraoculars and supraciliaries; (6) 12–21 occipitals, usually subequal to first dorsal row; (7) 22–40 anterior gulars; (8) middle anterior gulars polygonal or rounded and usually moderately enlarged, less often small, and rarely distinctly enlarged; (9) patch of moderately enlarged posterior gulars present, or all posterior gulars small, rarely posterior gulars in a distinctly enlarged patch; (10) 22–40 posterior gular scales between antegular and gular folds; (11) enlarged mesoptychial scales subequal or larger than largest gulars; (12) postbrachials moderately to distinctly enlarged; (13) 237–348 scales between occipitals and base of tail; (14) 111–157 dorsal scales across midbody; (15) ventrals in 29–34 transverse rows, and 10 longitudinal rows; (16) adult male coloration in life gray, bluish gray or gray–brown, each scale often with black pigments, with pale lateral ocelli; (17) throat in adults cream colored or blue; (18) a distinct whitish or yellow vertebral light stripe often present or ocelli present across dorsum; (19) juveniles with paired black spots and with indistinct pale dorsolateral line bordering upper margin of broad black lateral stripe, vertebral pale stripe or spots often on dorsum; (20) associated with open localities, dry forests, and savannahs. (UGUETO & HARVEY 2011: 154) Unfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 121 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Synonymy after UGUETO & HARVEY 2011. Ameiva ameiva fischeri PETERS & DONOSO-BARROS (1970: 19) is a replacement name for Cnemidophorus maculatus Fischer because the name A. maculata Gray [1838] was already in existence and a synonym of A. a. ameiva. Diet: a large percentage of the diet of this species (10-30%) consists of ants (Lucas et al. 2023). Distribution: not in Costa Rica fide Hladki et al. 2017. |
| Etymology | Named after Latin praesignis, pre-eminent, distinguished. [?]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) |
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