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Ameiva praesignis (BAIRD & GIRARD, 1852)

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Higher TaxaTeiidae, Teiinae, Gymnophthalmoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Giant Ameiva, Amazon Racerunner 
SynonymCnemidophorus 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 1878: 95 (dated 1879)
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 
DistributionSW Costa Rica, 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]  
Reproductionoviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesSyntypes: 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] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A medium-sized Ameiva dis- tinguished 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 round- ed and usually moderately enlarged, less often small, and rarely distinctly enlarged; (9) patch of moderately enlarged posterior gulars pre- sent, 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 me- soptychial scales subequal or larger than largest gulars; (12) postbrachials moderately to dis- tinctly 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.


Additional details (46 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSynonymy 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). 
EtymologyNamed after Latin praesignis, pre-eminent, distinguished. [?]. (from Esteban Lavilla, pers. comm., May 2024) 
References
  • Acuña-Vargas, J. C. 2016. Anfibios y Reptiles asociados a cinco coberturas de la tierra, municipio de Dibulla, La Guajira, Colombia. Acta Zoológica Mexicana (n. s.), 32(2): 133-146 - get paper here
  • Baird, S.F. and Girard,C. 1852. Characteristics of some new reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, part 2. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 6: 125-129 - get paper here
  • Barbour, T. and G. K. Noble. 1915. A revision of the lizards of the genus Ameiva. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 59: 417-479. - 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
  • Burt,C.E. & Burt,M.D. 1931. South American lizards in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History. Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist. 61 (7): 227-395 - get paper here
  • Castillo-Peñarredonda, C. J.; Tovar-Marquez; J. M. & Diaz-Perez, J. A. 2024. Los cambios en la cobertura del suelo afectan la diversidad de anfibios y reptiles en un paisaje rural de la región Caribe colombiana. ACTA ZOOLÓGICA MEXICANA (NS), 1-17 - 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
  • Cope, E.D. 1862. Synopsis of the species of Holcosus and Ameiva, with diagnoses of new West Indian and South American Colubridae. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 14: 60-82. - get paper here
  • Cope,E.D. 1875. On the Batrachia and Reptilia collected by Dr. John M. Bransford during the Nicaraguan Canal Survey of 1874. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 8 (2): 155-157 + 6 plates [presumably published in 1875, not 1876] - get paper here
  • Dunn,E.R. 1940. New and noteworthy herpetological material from Panamá. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 92: 105-122. - get paper here
  • Echternacht, A. C. 1971. Middle American lizards of the genus Ameiva. Misc. Publ. Univ. Kans. Mus. Nat. Hist. 55: 1-86 - get paper here
  • Fischer, J. G. 1879. Neue oder wenig bekannte Reptilien. Verh. naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg N.F. III: 78-103 - get paper here
  • Fuentes, Rogemif; Aschcroft, Jesse; Erick Barría, Helio Quintero-Arrieta, Alexis Baules, Abel Batista, Eduardo Zambrano, Marcos Ponce 2023. Herpetological diversity in forests of Portobelo National Park, Colón Biological Corridor, Panama. Reptiles & Amphibians 30 (1): e18434 - get paper here
  • HARVEY, MICHAEL B.; GABRIEL N. UGUETO & RONALD L. GUTBERLET, Jr. 2012. Review of Teiid Morphology with a Revised Taxonomy and Phylogeny of the Teiidae (Lepidosauria: Squamata). Zootaxa 3459: 1–156 - get paper here
  • Kluge, Arnold G. 1984. Type-specimens of reptiles in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. [type catalogue] Miscellaneous publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (167): 1-85 - get paper here
  • Larreal, J.T.; G.A. Rivas; C. Portillo-Quintero; T.R. Barros 2012. Squamata reptiles of a fragment of tropical dry forest in northwestern Venezuela (Lake Maracaibo region). Check List 8(6):1220-1224 - get paper here
  • Medina-Rangel, Guido Fabián 2013. CAMBIO EstACIOnAl En El UsO DE lOs RECURsOs DE lA COMUnIDAD DE REptIlEs En El COMplEJO CEnAgOsO DE ZApAtOsA, DEpARtAMEntO DEl CEsAR (Colombia). Caldasia 35 (1): 103-122 - get paper here
  • Morato, Sérgio Augusto Abrahão; Guilherme Nunes Ferreira; Michela Rossane Cavilha Scupino (eds.) 2018. Herpetofauna da Amazônia Central: Estudos na FLONA de Saracá-Taquera. Curitiba, Pr: STCP Engenharia de Projetos Ltda.; Porto Trombetas, Pa: MRN – Mineração Rio do Norte S.A., 2018.<br>210p. - get paper here
  • Müller, L. 1929. Über einige Rassen der Ameiva ameiva aus Venezuela. Zool. Anz. 83: 97-112; 193-211
  • Müller, Lorenz & Hellmich, Walter 1940. Mitteilungen über die Ameiven Kolumbiens. Zool. Anz. 132: 170-182
  • Ugueto, Gabriel N.; and Michael B. Harvey 2011. Revision of Ameiva ameiva Linnaeus (Squamata: Teiidae) in Venezuela: Recognition of Four Species and Status of Introduced Populations in Southern Florida, USA. Herpetological Monographs 25 (1): 112-170 - get paper here
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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