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Alopoglossus plicatus TAYLOR, 1949

IUCN Red List - Alopoglossus plicatus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaAlopoglossidae, Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Taylor's Largescale Lizard 
SynonymAlopoglossus plicatus TAYLOR 1949
Ptychoglossus plicatus — RUIBAL 1952
Ptychoglossus plicatus — PETERS & DONOSO-BARROS 1970: 245
Ptychoglossus plicatus — KÖHLER 2000: 104
Ptycoglossus plicatus — SANTOS-BARRER et al. 2008 (in error)
Ptychoglossus plicatus — SAVAGE & BOLAÑOS 2009
Ptychoglossus plicatus — ROVITO et al. 2015
Alopoglossus plicatus — HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES et al. 2020 
DistributionCosta Rica (La Lola, Limón), Panama, NW Colombia

Type locality: Morehouse Finca, 5 mi southwest of Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: KU 23800, adult male 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Ptychoglossus plicatus comes close to being totally cryptic with Po ayers, bisth having mutrona, dorsals. infracaudal scales, blunt ridges on some head scales and the same general asymmetry to the tip of the hemipenis. From P. myersi, it can be distinguished by its apparently greater body size (to 66 compared with 52 mm SVL for known specimens), greater adpressed limb overlap (3-8 dorsal scale lengths versus, at most, two), add by details of he hemipenis; 23-27 flounces rather than 9-12, and two instead of three evaginations on the enlarged half of the tip. (Harris 1994)


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CommentDistribution: Not in Brazil fide COSTA & BERNILS 2015.

Diet: a large percentage of the diet of this species (10-80%) consists of ants (Lucas et al. 2023). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin plicatus, folded. [“...Each side of tongue decorated with a regular series of plicae that run forward to medial line, forming 24 chevrons...”]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) 
References
  • Catenazzi, A., and P. J. Venegas 2012. Anfibios y reptiles/Amphibians and reptiles. in: N. Pitman, E. Ruelas Inzunza, D. Alvira, C. Vriesendorp, D. K. Moskovits, Á. del Campo, T. Wachter, D. F. Stotz, S. Noningo Sesén, E. Tuesta Cerrón, y/and R. C. Smith, eds. Perú: Cerros de Kampankis. Rapid Biological and Social Inventories Report 24. The Field Museum, Chicago, pp. 106–117, 260–271, 348–365 - get paper here
  • Cavalcanti, Lucas B Q; Gabriel C Costa, Guarino R Colli, Eric R Pianka, Laurie J Vitt, Daniel O Mesquita 2023. Myrmecophagy in lizards: evolutionary and ecological implications. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2023;, zlad175, - get paper here
  • Goldberg, Stephen R. 2008. Note on Reproduction of two species of microteiid lizards, Leposoma southi and Ptychoglossus plicatus (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae). Bull. Maryland Herp. Soc. 44 (2): 42-45 - get paper here
  • Harris,D.M. 1994. Review of the teiid lizard genus Ptychoglossus. Herpetological Monographs 8: 226-275 - get paper here
  • Hernández-Morales, C., Sturaro, M.J., Nunes, P.M.S., Lotzkat, S. and Peloso, P.L. 2020. A species‐level total evidence phylogeny of the microteiid lizard family Alopoglossidae (Squamata: Gymnophthalmoidea). Cladistics - get paper here
  • Herrera, Yuliana Christopher and Fernández-Marín, Hermógenes 2016. Ptychoglossus plicatus (Taylor's Large-scaled Lizard) Nesting. Herpetological Review 47 (4): 673-674 - get paper here
  • Köhler, G. 2000. Reptilien und Amphibien Mittelamerikas, Bd 1: Krokodile, Schildkröten, Echsen. Herpeton Verlag, Offenbach, 158 pp.
  • Köhler, G. 2008. Reptiles of Central America. 2nd Ed. Herpeton-Verlag, 400 pp.
  • Köhler, Gunther, Joseph Vargas, Johannes J. Köhler and Milan Vesel´y. 2013. Noteworthy distributional records of amphibians and reptiles from Costa Rica. Herpetological Review 44 (2): 280-283 - get paper here
  • Llanqui IB, Salas CY, Oblitas MP 2019. A preliminary checklist of amphibians and reptiles from the vicinity of La Nube Biological Station, Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, Peru. Check List 15 (5): 773–796 - get paper here
  • Mendenhall, Chase D.; Luke O. Frishkoff, Georgina Santos-Barrera, Jesús Pacheco, Eyobed Mesfun, Fernando Mendoza Quijano, Paul R. Ehrlich, Gerardo Ceballos, Gretchen C. Daily, and Robert M. Pringle 2014. Countryside biogeography of Neotropical reptiles and amphibians. Ecology 95: 856–870 - get paper here
  • Morato de Carvalho, C. et al. 2021. VERTEBRADOS TERRESTRES DE RORAIMA BIOLOGIA GERAL E EXPERIMENTAL 20/21 (1): - 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
  • 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 2016. Diversity, distribution, and conservation of lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) in the Brazilian Amazonia. Neotropical Biodiversity, 2:1, 195-421 - get paper here
  • Rovito, Sean Michael; Thomas James Devitt, Susan Cameron Devitt 2015. First survey of the amphibians and reptiles of the Nectandra Cloud Forest Reserve, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Check List 11 (2): 1570 - get paper here
  • Sánchez-Pacheco, S. J., J. V. Rueda-Almonacid, J. R. Caicedo-Portilla & S. M. Souza 2016. First record of Leposoma caparensis from Colombia, with confirmation for the presence of Ptychoglossus myersi and P. plicatus (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae). Salamandra 52 (1): 53-57 - get paper here
  • Santos-Barrera, Georgina; Jesus Pacheco, Fernando Mendoza-Quijano, Federico Bolaños,<br />Gerardo Cháves , Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich & Gerardo Ceballos 2008. Diversity, natural history and conservation of amphibians and reptiles from the San Vito Region, southwestern Costa Rica. Rev. Biol. Trop. 56 (2): 755-778 - get paper here
  • Sasa, M., Arias, E., & Chaves, G. 2025. Annotated list of amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica: The role of the Museum of Zoology in cataloging the country’s herpetological diversity. Revista de Biología Tropical, 73(S2): e64536-e64536 - get paper here
  • Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna Between Two Continents, Between Two Seas. University of Chicago Press, 934 pp. [review in Copeia 2003 (1): 205]
  • Scott, N.J. 1976. The abundance and diversity of the herpetofaunas of tropical forest litter. Biotropica 8 (1): 41-58 - get paper here
  • Silva Araújo, Guilherme da; Robert Moraes dos Santos, José Otávio<br />Wonghon Costa, Fabrício Otávio do Nascimento Pereira, Mateus Kennedy Lemos da<br />Silva, Isadora Fernandes de França, Emil José Hernández-Ruz 2024. Répteis e anfíbios da unidade de manejo florestal Fazenda Uberlândia Altamira, PA : Edições Ad Excelsa, 127 pp.
  • Taylor, E. H. 1956. A review of the lizards of Costa Rica. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 38 (part 1): 3-322 - get paper here
  • Taylor,E.H. 1949. Two new teiid lizards from Costa Rica. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 33 (5): 271-278. - get paper here
 
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