You are here » home › advanced search › Cercosaura argulus

Cercosaura argulus PETERS, 1862

IUCN Red List - Cercosaura argulus - Least Concern, LC
iNaturalist logo

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Cercosaura argulus?

Add your own observation of
Cercosaura argulus »

Find more photos by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaGymnophthalmidae (Cercosaurinae), Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: White-lipped Cercosaura
Portuguese: Lagarto-do-Folhiço 
SynonymCercosaura (Pantodactylus) argulus PETERS 1863: 184
Prionodactylus argulus — BOULENGER 1885: 391
Prionodactylus holmgreni ANDERSSON 1914: 9
Prionodactylus holmgreni — WERNER 1916: 307
Prionodactylus columbiensis WERNER 1917: 306
Prionodactylus argulus — UZZELL 1970: 235 (part)
Prionodactylus argulus — PETERS et al. 1970: 235
Prionodactylus argulus — DUELLMAN 1978: 220
Prionodactylus argulus — DIRKSEN & DE LA RIVA 1999
Prionodactylus argulus — LEHR 2002: 74
Prionodactylus argulus — PIANKA & VITT 2003: 69
Cercosaura argulus — DOAN 2003
Cercosaura argula — TORRES-CARVAJAL et al. 2015
Cercosaura argula — ECHEVARRIA et al. 2015
Cercosaura argulus — STURARO et al. 2017
Cercosaura argula — TORRES-CARVAJAL et al. 2019 
DistributionColombia (Llanos Orientales de Colombia, Amazonía; Valle del Río Magdalena; Huila, Tolima, Cundinamarca, Boyaca, Caldas; Cauca y Valle under 1500 m elevation), Ecuador, Bolivia (Cochabamba, La Paz, Santa Cruz), French Guiana, Peru (Pasco etc.), Brazil (Amazonas, E Para, Rondonia, Acre, Maranhão), Suriname (?), Guyana (?)

Elevation: 10–1800 m (DOAN & LAMAR 2012).

Type locality: “Umgebung von Sta. Fé de Bogotá” [= Cundinamarca, Colombia]  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ZMB 4555 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Frontonasal divided. Loreal i n contact with supralabials. Scales around midbody 27-35. Males with 12-20, females with 2-6, pores in total, none i n preanal position; the pores from two sides separated by four ventrals in a transverse row. Subdigital lamellae not or only slightly tuberculate, 16-22 under fourth toe. A sharp delimitation o n sides of head, usually just above supralabials, between a brown dorsal surface and a white ventral surface; lower flanks white, continuous with white belly (from Avila-Pires 1995: 454). 
CommentSynonymy: P. oshaughnessyi has been synonymized with P. argulus by UZZELL (1973) and DOAN 2003. However, some authors continued to treat P. oshaughnessyi as valid species, e.g. Pellegrino et al. (2001), Avila-Pires et al. 2009. Torres-Carvajal et al. 2015 found argulus and oshaughnessyi as (weakly) separated genetically and monophyletic although their sampling was somewhat biased (with only 2 specimens of argulus) and all specimens of oshaughnessyi being from a relatively small geographic area. We accept oshaughnessyi given that it was also considered as distinct by Sturaro et al. 2017. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “argulus” (meaning: small spot, probably in allusion to the ocelli in this species), a noun in supposition, hence it does not change when it is moved to another genus that may have a different gender. See Sturaro et al. 2017 for details.

Prionodactylus oshaughnessyi was named after A. W. E. O’Shaughnessy, herpetologist of the British Museum.  
References
  • Andersson, L.G. 1914. A new Telmatobius and new teiid lizards from South America. Arkiv för Zoologi 9 (3): 1-12 - get paper here
  • Avila-Pires, T.C.S. 1995. Lizards of Brazilian Amazonia (Reptilia: Squamata). Zoologische Verhandelingen 299: 1-706 - get paper here
  • Avila-Pires, Teresa C.S.; Kleiton R. Alves-Silva, Laís Barbosa, Fabrício S. Correa, Jorge F. A. Cosenza, Ana Paula V. Costa-Rodrigues, Aurea A. Cronemberger, Marinus S. Hoogmoed, Geraldo R. Lima-Filho, Adriano O. Maciel, Alexandre F. R. Missassi, Lyw 2018. Changes in Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Over Time in Parque Estadual do Utinga, a Protected Area Surrounded by Urbanization. Herpetology Notes 11: 499-512 - get paper here
  • Betancourth-Cundar, Mileidy & Aquiles Gutiérrez Zamora 2010. ASPECTOS ECOLÓGICOS DE LA HERPETOFAUNA DEL CENTRO EXPERIMENTAL AMAZÓNICO, PUTUMAYO, COLOMBIA ECOTRÓPICOS 23 (2): 61-78 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1885. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 2, Second edition. London, xiii+497 pp. - get paper here
  • Castro-Herrera, F. & Vargas-Salinas, F. 2008. Anfibios y reptiles en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Biota Colombiana 9 (2): 251 - 277 - get paper here
  • Castro-Herrera, F.; Bolívar-García, W. & Herrera-Montes, M.I. 2007. Guía de los Anfibios y Reptiles des Bosque de Yotoco, Valle deel Cauca, Colombia. Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, 70 pp. - get paper here
  • CATENAZZI, A., LEHR, E. & VON MAY, R. 2013. The amphibians and reptiles of Manu National Park and its buffer zone, Amazon basin and eastern slopes of the Andes, Peru. Biota Neotropica 13 (4): 269-283
  • Cole, Charles J.; Carol R. Townsend, Robert P. Reynolds, Ross D. MacCulloch, and Amy Lathrop 2013. Amphibians and reptiles of Guyana, South America: illustrated keys, annotated species accounts, and a biogeographic synopsis. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 125 (4): 317-578; plates: 580-620 - get paper here
  • Crnobrna B, Santa-Cruz Farfan R, Gallegos C, López-Rojas JJ, Llanqui IB, Pisco GP, Arbaiza AK 2023. Herpetological records from the Abujao basin, central Peruvian Amazon. Check List 19(4): 433-465 - get paper here
  • DIAGO-TORO, MARÍA F.; DANIELA GARCÍA-COBOS, GIOVANNI D. BRIGANTE-LUNA & JUAN D. VÁSQUEZ-RESTREPO. 2021. Fantastic lizards and where to find them: cis-Andean microteiids (Squamata: Alopoglossidae & Gymnophthalmidae) from the Colombian Orinoquia and Amazonia. Zootaxa 5067 (3): 377–400. - get paper here
  • Dirksen, L. & De la Riva, I. 1999. The lizards and amphisbaenians of Bolivia (Reptilia, Squamata): checklist, localities, and bibliography. Graellsia 55: 199-215 - get paper here
  • Dixon, J. R.; Soini, P. 1975. The reptiles of the upper Amazon basin, Iquitos region, Peru, Part I. Lizards and Amphisbaenians. Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology 4: 1-58 [1986?] - get paper here
  • Doan, T.M. 2003. A new phylogenetic classification for the gymnophthalmid genera Cercosaura, Pantodactylus and Prionodactylus (Reptilia: Squamata). Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 137 (1): 101-115 - get paper here
  • Duellman, W. E. 1978. The biology of an equatorial herpetofauna in Amazonian Ecuador. Misc. Publ. Univ. Kans. Mus. Nat. Hist. 65: 1-352 - get paper here
  • Duellman, W. E. 2005. Cusco Amazónico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainforest. Comstock Pub Assoc.
  • Duellman, W.E., & Salas, A.W. 1991. Annotated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Cuzco Amazonico, Peru. Occas. Papers Mus. of Natur. Hist., Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence (143): 13 pp. - get paper here
  • Duellman,W.E. & Mendelson III, J.R. 1995. Amphibians and reptiles from Northern Departamento Loreto, Peru: Taxonomy and Biogeography. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 55 (10): 329-376 - get paper here
  • Echevarría LY, Barboza AC, Venegas PJ. 2015. A new species of montane gymnophthalmid lizard, genus Cercosaura (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae), from the Amazon slope of northern Peru. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 9(1): 34–44 (e109) - get paper here
  • Fang, José M.; Juan D. Vásquez-Restrepo & Juan M. Daza 2020. Filling the gaps in a highly diverse Neotropical lizard lineage: a new and endemic genus of Cercosaurinae (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) with the description of two new species from the Northern Andes of Colombia. Systematics and Biodiversity, DOI: 10.1080/14772000.2020.1783714 - get paper here
  • Freitas, M. A. de, Venancio, N. M., Abegg, A. D., Azevedo, W. S, Pereira, V. O., Zanotti, A. P., Veloso, A., Schwarzbach, L., Oliveira, A. G., da Silva, R. C. C., de Amorim, V. R. G. and de Moura, G. J. B. 2020. Herpetofauna at the Rio Acre Ecological Station, Amazon Rainforest, Brazil. Herpetology Notes 13: 33-48. - get paper here
  • Freitas, M.A.; S. Oliveira e Sousa; R.S. Vieira; T. Farias; G.J.B. Moura. 2013. First record of Cercosaura argulus (Peters, 1863) (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) for the state of Maranhão, Brazil. Check List 9 (6):1541-1542 - get paper here
  • Fugler, Charles M. and A. Brad Walls. 1978. The lizards of the Upano Valley of southeastern ecuador. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 54 (3): 120-121 - get paper here
  • Gonzalez R. C. et al. 2020. Lista dos Nomes Populares dos Répteis no Brasil – Primeira Versão. Herpetologia Brasileira 9 (2): 121 – 214 - get paper here
  • Hoogmoed, M.S., & Lescure, J. 1975. An annotated checklist of the lizards of French Guiana, mainly based on two recent collections. Zoologische Mededelingen 49(13): 141-172. - get paper here
  • Lehr, E. 2001. New records for amphibians and reptiles from Departamentos Pasco and Ucayali, Peru. Herpetological Review 32 (2): 130-132 - get paper here
  • Lehr, E. 2002. Amphibien und Reptilien in Peru. Natur und Tier-Verlag (Münster), 208 pp. - get paper here
  • Lima Moraes, L. J. C. de, do Nascimento Rainha, R., de Pinho Werneck, F., de Souza Oliveira, A. F., Gascon, C., & de Carvalho, V. T. 2022. Amphibians and reptiles from a protected area in western Brazilian Amazonia (Reserva Extrativista do Baixo Juruá). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia, 62, e202262054-e202262054 - get paper here
  • Marinho Lima, Almira Claudia 1997. Geographic Distribution. Prionodactylus argulus. Herpetological Review 28 (3): 157 - get paper here
  • Medina-Rangel, Guido Fabian; Miguel Á. Méndez-Galeano &<br />Martha Lucía Calderón-Espinosa 2019. Herpetofauna of San José del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia Biota Colombiana 20 (1): 75-90 - get paper here
  • Mendes-Pinto, T. J. & S. Marques de Souza 2011. Preliminary assessment of amphibians and reptiles from Floresta Nacional do Trairão, with a new snake record for the Pará state, Brazilian Amazon. Salamandra 47 (4): 199-206 - get paper here
  • Metcalf, M. F., Guedouar, E., Davis, L., Rodriguez, A., Marsh, A., Pacaya, E. T., ... & Gunnels IV, C. W. 2023. Herpetofauna of Madre Selva Biological Station in Loreto, Peru. Herpetology Notes, 16, 727-740
  • Metcalf, Matthew; Alexander Marsh, Emerson Torres, Devon Graham, Charles Gunnels 2020. Herpetofauna of the Santa Cruz Forest Preserve in the Peruvian Amazon Basin. Herpetology Notes 13: 753-767 - get paper here
  • Moravec J., Aparicio J. 2004. Notes on the herpetofauna of Nacebe (Provincia Abuna, Departamento Pando, Bolivia). Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 173 (1-4): 13-28
  • Oliveira, D.P.; S.M. Souza; L. Frazão; A.P. Almeida; T. Hrbek 2014. Lizards from central Jatapú River, Amazonas, Brazil. Check List 10 (1): 46-53 - get paper here
  • Páez, V.P. et al. 2002. Guía de campo de algunas especies de anfibios y reptiles de Antioquia. Universidad de Antioquia, - get paper here
  • Pellegrino, K. C. M.; Rodrigues, M. T.; Yonenaga-Yassuda, Y.; Sites, J. W. 2001. A molecular perspective on the evolution of microteiid lizards (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae), and a new classification for the family. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 74 (3): 315-338 - get paper here
  • Peters, James A. & Donoso-Barros, Roberto 1970. Catalogue of the Neotropical Squamata: Part II. Lizards and Amphisbaenians. Bull. US Natl. Mus. 297: 293 pp. - get paper here
  • Peters, W. 1862. Über Cercosaura und die mit dieser Gattung verwandten Eidechsen aus Südamerika. Abh. Berlin Akad. 1862: 165-225
  • Pianka, E.R. & Vitt, L.J. 2003. Lizards - Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. University of California Press, Berkeley, 347 pp. [review in Copeia 2004: 955] - get paper here
  • Prudente, A.L.C.; F. Magalhães; A. Menks; J.F.M. Sarmento. 2013. Checklist of Lizards of the Juruti, state of Pará, Brazil. Check List 9 (1):42-50 - get paper here
  • Rabosky, Daniel L.; Rudolf von May, Michael C. Grundler and Alison R. Davis Rabosky 2019. The Western Amazonian Richness Gradient for Squamate Reptiles: Are There Really Fewer Snakes and Lizards in Southwestern Amazonian Lowlands? Diversity 11: 199; doi:10.3390/d11100199 - get paper here
  • RIBEIRO-JÚNIOR, MARCO A. & SILVANA AMARAL 2017. Catalogue of distribution of lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from the Brazilian Amazonia. IV. Alopoglossidae, Gymnophthalmidae. Zootaxa 4269 (2): 151-196 - get paper here
  • Ribeiro-Júnior, Marco A. & Silvana Amaral 2016. Diversity, distribution, and conservation of lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) in the Brazilian Amazonia. Neotropical Biodiversity, 2:1, 195-421 - get paper here
  • Rodrigues-França, Frederico Gustavo & Nathocley Mendes-Venâncio 2010. Reptiles and amphibians of a poorly known region in southwest Amazonia Biotemas, 23 (3): 71-84 - get paper here
  • Sturaro, Marcelo José; Teresa C. S. Avila-Pires & Miguel T. Rodrigues 2017. Molecular phylogenetic diversity in the widespread lizard Cercosaura ocellata (Reptilia: Gymnophthalmidae) in South America. Systematics and Biodiversity - get paper here
  • Torres-Carvajal O, Pazmiño-Otamendi G, Salazar-Valenzuela D. 2019. Reptiles of Ecuador: a resource-rich portal, with a dynamic checklist and photographic guides. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 13 (1): [General Section]: 209–229 (e178) - get paper here
  • Uzzell, T. 1973. A revision of lizards of the genus Prionodactylus with a new genus for P. leucostictus and notes on the genus Euspondylus (Sauria, Teiidae). Postilla 159: 1-67 - get paper here
  • Vaz-Silva, W.; RM Oliveira, AFN Gonzaga, KC Pinto, FC Poli, TM Bilce, M Penhacek, L Wronski, JX Martins, TG Junqueira, LCC, Cesca VY, Guimarães RD. Pinheiro 2015. Contributions to the knowledge of amphibians and reptiles from Volta Grande do Xingu, northern Brazil Braz. J. Biol., 75 (3) (suppl.): S205-S218 - get paper here
  • VITT, L.J.; AVILA-PIRES, T.C.S.; ZANI, P.A., ESPÓSITO, M.C. & SARTORIUS, S.S. 2003. Life at the interface: ecology of Prionodactylus oshaughnessyi in the western Amazon and comparisons with P. argulus and P. eigenmanni. Can. J. Zool., 81: 302–312 - get paper here
  • Werner,F. 1916. Bemerkungen über einige niedere Wirbeltiere der Anden von Kolumbien mit Beschreibungen neuer Arten. Zool. Anz. 47: 301-311 - get paper here
  • Whithworth, A. & Beirne, C. 2011. Reptiles of the Yachana Reserve. Global Vision International, 130 pp. - get paper here
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator