Tretioscincus oriximinensis Ávila-Pires, 1995

Diago-Toro, María F., García-Cobos, Daniela, Brigante-Luna, Giovanni D. & Vásquez-Restrepo, Juan D., 2021, Fantastic lizards and where to find them: cis-Andean microteiids (Squamata: Alopoglossidae & Gymnophthalmidae) from the Colombian Orinoquia and Amazonia, Zootaxa 5067 (3), pp. 377-400 : 393

Tretioscincus oriximinensis Ávila-Pires, 1995

Distribution: A disjunct distribution in the Amazonia of Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia ( Ribeiro-Júnior & Amaral 2017). In Colombia this species is known from the eastern Amazon River basin, in the department of Vaupés ( Fig. 4E ).

Similar species: Tretioscincus oriximinensis can be misidentified with other skink-like species from the Scincidae family or gymnophthalmids such as Gymnophthalmus and Iphisa elegans . However, it is easily distinguished from the scincids in having distinct shield-like scales in the mental region that greatly differ from scales in the gular region (mental cycloid similar in shape to the gular scales in Scincidae ). Moreover, it may be distinguished by the presence of distinct movable lower eyelid, and pentadactyl hands with the first finger reduced (lower eyelid absent and just four digits on hands in Gymnophthalmus ); 16 longitudinal rows of scales around midbody, and three pairs of chin-shields (12 longitudinal rows of scales around midbody, and two pairs of chin-shields being the first extremely larger in Iphisa elegans ). Although T. oriximinensis is not sympatric with T. bifasciatus (another common trans-Andean species in Colombia), it can be easily distinguished in having completely smooth dorsal scales, or weakly keeled only in the posterior part of the body (strongly keeled dorsal scales along the body in T. bifasciatus ). For a more detailed description see Ávila-Pires (1995).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Distribution maps for the cis-Andean microteiid lizards in Colombia (Alopoglossidae + Gymnophthalmidae). Circles are examined specimens, while squares are records from literature (see Supplementary Files for specific references). Red arrows indicate new records for Colombia. Black arrows show a zoom in to regions where several records overlap. The light green shadow indicates the Orinoco River basin, and the dark green the Amazon River basin.