Phymaturus aguedae TRONCOSO-PALACIOS & ESQUERRÉ, 2014
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Phymaturus aguedae
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| Higher Taxa | Liolaemidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Agueda’s Rocky Lizard S: Matuasto de Agueda |
| Synonym | Phymaturus aguedae TRONCOSO-PALACIOS & ESQUERRÉ 2014 |
| Distribution | Chile (Metropolitan Region, San Ramón Highlands) Type locality: near the summit of the Provincia Mountain (33°25' S, 70°26' W), 2712 m elevation, Metropolitan Region, Chile |
| Reproduction | viviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Holotype: SSUC Re 588 (Colección de Flora y Fauna Profesor Patricio Sánchez Reyes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile). Adult male. Collected by Jaime TroncosoPalacios and F. Meza colls. 22/11/2011. Paratypes: SSUC Re 592. One adult male. Near the summit of Provincia Mountain in the “Paso de Piedras”, 2707 m. Jaime Troncoso Palacios and L. Negrete colls. November 2009. SSUC Re 595–96, two males and SSUC Re 593–94, two juveniles. Near the summit of Provincia Mountain, between 2683 and 2716 m. Jaime TroncosoPalacios and F. Díaz colls. January 2011. SSUC Re 589. Adult female. Near the summit of the Provincia Mountain, 2707 m. Jaime Troncoso-Palacios and M. L. Carrevedo. 03/02/2012 (Figure 3). |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Phymaturus aguedae sp. nov. belongs to the P. palluma Group because it has short, nonimbricate superciliary scales; 2 or 3 loreolabials between the posterior subocular and the supralabials; 4 or 5 subocular scales; and strongly spiny tail scales. Within the P. palluma Group, P. aguedae is a member of the mallimaccii clade, because it has a dorsal pattern formed by a homogeneous fine spotting (“spray”) and lacks dark reticulation. It is the southernmost distributed species of the mallimaccii lineage. Phymaturus aguedae can be distinguished from the Argentinian species of the mallimaccii clade (species listed ordered by date of description) as follows. Male P. mallimacci have a yellow dorsal color with small dispersed dark spots (Cei 1980), whereas male P. aguedae has an olive dorsal coloration with light bands. Male P. punae have a yellow ground color with small, dispersed dark spots and melanism on the head and neckfolds (Cei et al. 1985), whereas male P. aguedae have a different dorsal pattern lacking melanism on the head and neckfolds. Also, in P. punae, has the preocular scale larger than the canthal (Lobo et al. 2012b), whereas it is smaller than the canthal in the new species. Male P. antofagastensis have four or five brown markings on the head (“dice pattern”) and a partially aggregated, spotted dorsal pattern without reticulation (Lobo et al. 2010). Also, in P. antofagastensis, the preocular scale is larger than the canthal (Lobo et al. 2012b). In P. laurenti, the male has a yellow dorsal coloration with a partially aggregated spotted dorsal pattern and enlarged postcloacal scales (Lobo et al. 2010), whereas male P. aguedae lack enlarged postcloacal scales. Phymaturus extrilidus differs in having a yellow scapular spot, gular melanism in both sexes, and the preocular scale larger than the canthal (Lobo et al. 2012c). In P. denotatus, females have small white dots dispersed on the dorsum and the sides of the neck, a unique condition among the P. palluma Group. Additionally, the ground color of male P. denotatus is yellow and the size of the preocular scale is about equal to that of the canthal (Lobo et al. 2012b). Male P. aguanegra and P. williamsi have head and gular melanism and lack light bands on the dorsum (Lobo et al. 2013). The differences between Phymaturus aguedae and other Chilean species of the mallimaccii clade are as follow. The new species can be distinguished from P. bibronii that has posterior supralabials that project downwards; a larger preocular than canthal scale; only one subocular scale (right side); and a totally different dorsal pattern (Troncoso-Palacios et al. 2013); in contrast, P. aguedae lacks posterior supralabials that project downward, has a preocular scale that is smaller than the canthal, and has 4 or 5 subocular scales. Phymaturus alicahuense differs in having 1–3 suboculars, and a preocular scale that either is larger than, or about equal, in size to the canthal. Moreover, male P. alicahuense males have almost no dorsal pattern, in contrast to P. aguedae. Phymaturus aguedae resembles P. darwini (Figure 4); however, the latter has 2–4 subocular scales (x = 3.0; SD = ±0.8), whereas P. aguedae has4or5(x=4.8;SD=±0.4).InP.darwini, the preocular is similar in size to the canthal in 72.7% of specimens and smaller than canthal in 27.3%, whereas in P. aguedae, the preocular always is smaller than the canthal. Male and female P. darwini have well-defined ocelli in the paravertebral fields, whereas males and females of P. aguedae have diffuse light bands in the paravertebral fields and lack ocelli. Also, female P. darwini have a dark brown ground color and males have a dark green background color, whereas females of P. aguedae have light brown background coloration and males have an olive brown background color. Scalation and morphological features of geographically nearby species to P. aguedae is summarized in Table 1 in Palacios-Troncoso & Esquerré 2014. |
| Comment | Similar specis: P. darwinii. In fact, may be a synonym of P. darwini (Demangel 2016). Abundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). |
| Etymology | The species is named after Agueda Palacios, the mother of JTP. |
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