Alopoglossus bilineatus (BOULENGER, 1890)
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Alopoglossus bilineatus
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| Higher Taxa | Alopoglossidae, Sauria, Gymnophthalmoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | |
| Synonym | Ptychoglossus bilineatus BOULENGER 1890: 84 Ptychoglossus bilineatus — HARRIS 1994 Ptychoglossus bilineatus — PELOSO & AVILA-PIRES 2010 Alopoglossus bilineatus — HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | Ecuador, Colombia (HR 41: 514) Type locality: Ecuador. |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Holotype: BMNH 1946.8.2.38 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus Ptychoglossus). Ptychoglossus fits into Boulenger's (1885) group II of the family Teiidae, a large nontaxonomic assemblage (actually one of the four major sections of his key to teiids) based on the presence of ear openings with recessed tympani; movable eyelids, limbs each with five fully developed, clawed digits; and nasal scales separated from each other by the rostral and frontonasal scales. All except the last of these are primitive characters, and the last relates group II to groups III and IV, the microteiids. Only three group Il genera: Alopoglossus, Arthrosaura and Ptychoglossus have parietal scales approximately equal in length to the interparietal; and together, their posterior borders form a nearly straight, instead of an anteriorly concave, suture across the back of the head. As in Arthrosaura, the dorsal scales of Ptychoglossus have parallel sides and the scales of the forelimb are smooth, or with no more than a feeble longitudinal thickening. Ptychoglossus is most closely allied to and possibly congeneric with Alopoglossus. The two differ from Arthrosaura by usually having divided nasal scales; posterior chin shields separated from, or at most in point-contact with, the infralabials; preanal pore series not staggered behind the femoral pore series, but on the same level where they come together (preanal pores may also be absent); and a longitudinally tubular frontal bone instead of one with a pair of descending flanges (MacLean, 1974); and by not having a large triangular or rhomboid anterior preanal scale. Ptychoglossus and Alopoglossus differ from all other group II teiids in several respects. As their names imply, in both genera the dorsal surface of the tongue is completely covered with anteromedially converging plicae rather than scale-like papillae. The flounces of the hemipenes are adorned with bands of minute hooks, rather than comb-like series of calcareous spinules. The Meckel's groove is open anteriorly, while in other group Il species some portion of Meckel's cartilage is encased in a tubular section of the dentary (MacLean, 1974). The primitive open Meckel's groove is also found in Heterodactylus (group IlI), and in the macroteiids (group I). Except for the fully plicate dorsal surface of the tongue which is practically a unique feature, these characters bear closest resemblance to macroteiids. This suggests that Alopoglossus and Ptychoglossus possibly comprise a sister group to all other microteiids. Ptychoglossus differs trom Alopoglossus by its exclusively smooth-scaled torelimbs which never bear sharp keels (P. myersi and P. plicatus show at most slight central thickening on some of the forelimb scales) and by having parallel-sided dorsal scales. All but one Alopoglossus species have rhomboid, laterally imbricating dorsal scales; in A. lehmanni (Ayala and Harris, 1984) the scale sides are parallel on only 3-4 middorsal scales. The microornamentation of the dorsal scales also differs; in Ptychoglossus the dorsals are largely unadorned, glossy when dry. Those of Alopoglossus are covered with minute projections, except on the crests of the keels. These bumps vary from symmetrically rounded (e.g., in A. atriventris) to flattened and tilted posteriorly (e.g., in A. copir), and make the scales appear dull or grainy when dry. (Harris 1994) 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 8811 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. |
| Comment | Ptychoglossus bilineatus has been synonymzed with Leposoma picticeps in PETERS et al. 1970; the latter in turn has been synonymized with Arthrosaura reticulata by HARRIS (1994). Type Species: Ptychoglossus bilineatus is the type species of the genus Ptychoglossus BOULENGER 1890. Hernández-Morales et al. 2020 synonymized Ptychoglossus with Alopoglossus. |
| Etymology | Named after Latin bilineata, -us, having two lines. [“...with a yellowish streak along each side of the back...”]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) |
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