Cnemidophorus ruatanus BARBOUR, 1928
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Cnemidophorus ruatanus
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| Higher Taxa | Teiidae, Teiinae, Gymnophthalmoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Central American Whiptail |
| Synonym | Cnemidophorus lemniscatus ruatanus BARBOUR 1928: 60 Cnemidophorus lemniscatus lemniscatus — BURT 1931: 30 (part) Cnemidophorus lemniscatus — ECHTERNACHT 1968: 152 (part) Cnemidophorus lemniscatus ruatanus — MASLIN & SECOY 1986 Cnemidophorus lemniscatus ruatanus — WRIGHT 1993: 79 Cnemidophorus lemniscatus — MONTGOMERY et al. 2007: 38. Cnemidophorus ruatanus — MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2013 Cnemidophorus ruatanus — SUNYER & MARTÍNEZ-FONSECA 2023 |
| Distribution | Honduras (Islas de la Bahía: Roatán, Utila, Cayo Cochino Pequeño), Guatemala (Río Motagua Valley and adjacent coastal plain), eastward across N Honduras to extreme NE Nicaragua, SE Belize; sea level to 400 m elevation Type locality: Coxen Hole, Isla de Roatán, Islas de la Bahía, Honduras |
| Reproduction | oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Holotype: MCZ 26759 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: Cnemidophorus ruatanus can be distinguished from other northern populations of the C. lemniscatus species group as follows: from C. l. espeuti of Islas de Providencia and San Andrés, Colombia, by having a single and distinct vertebral stripe, 27–32 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe, and 14–17 subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger (versus vertebral stripe split, 33–35 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe, and 17–19 subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger in C. l. espeuti); from C. l. gaigei in having 11–13 in 31, 10 in 5, or 9 in 19 scales surrounding the three enlarged precloacal plates, and in those having only 9 scales the precloacal pair are completely separated by a single scale (Fig. 5A) in 15 or separated by distance of one-third to over one-half in 4 (versus 9–10 scales surrounding the three enlarged precloacal plates in all eight examined and the precloacal pair in broad contact, without a smaller interscale in 6 (Fig. 5B) and a small interscale not separating precloacal pair by more than one-third in 2 in C. l. gaigei [see Discussion below]). Burt (1931) synonymized C. ruatanus with C. l. lemniscatus, but the latter differs most notably from C. ruatanus in having a split or divided vertebral stripe (versus vertebral stripe single in C. ruatanus). Cnemidophorus ruatanus also differs from C. l. lemniscatus in amount of molecular divergence [MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2013]. |
| Comment | Synonymy: after MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2013. McCranie (2009), Townsend and Wilson (2010a), and Wilson and Johnson (2010) treated this species as part of Cnemidophorus lemniscatus, but McCranie and Hedges (2013) resurrected it from the synonymy of C. lemniscatus and elevated it to species level. Distribution: see map in MCCRANIE & HEDGES 2013: 306. HAbitat: Lowland Moist Forest and Lowland Dry Forest formations, in open areas, such as beach vegetation and along open, gravely or sandy riverbanks. |
| Etymology | The specific name ruatanus refers to Isla de Roatán (misspelled Ruatan by Barbour, 1928) plus the Latin suffix – anus (inhabiting, belonging to), referring to where the type specimen of this species was collected. |
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