Potamites ecpleopus ( Cope, 1875 )

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 : 388

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5067.3.3
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F64E5226-B4DD-44A3-A83E-E05928B82F4B
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5699693
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C787E7-C310-FF99-FF41-9BAB5CC143A5
treatment provided by	Plazi (2021-11-11 07:53:52, last updated 2024-11-29 19:17:08)
scientific name	Potamites ecpleopus ( Cope, 1875 )
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Potamites ecpleopus ( Cope, 1875)

Distribution: Distributed in the Amazonia of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia ( Ribeiro-Júnior & Amaral 2017). In Colombia in the south portion of the Amazonia region, including the departments of Caquetá, Putumayo, Vaupés, Amazonas, and the eastern foothills of Huila and Cauca ( Fig. 4C View FIGURE 4 ).

Similar species: This species may be confused with Gelanesaurus spp. and Neusticurus medemi , being differentiated from these two in having six longitudinal rows of tubercles on the dorsum (four rows of keeled enlarged scales forming longitudinal ridges in Gelanesaurus , and small and irregular scales non-forming ridges in N. medemi ). See Ávila-Pires (1995) for a more detailed description.

Remarks: Currently, Potamites ecpleopus represents a non-monophyletic clade ( Torres-Carvajal et al. 2016; Moravec et al. 2018). Among the variations we observed, we found some specimens with frontonasal scale single (n=10) and others with frontonasal divided (n=7). We also found variation in the presence (n=10) and absence (n=7) of a diamond-shaped azygous scale between prefrontals and frontonasals. Although there are no evident geographical patterns, we observe that most specimens with divided frontonasal have the diamond-shaped scale (70%), while when single, most of them lacked this scale (71%).

References

Avila-Pires, T. (1995) Lizards of Brazilian Amazonia (Reptilia: Squamata). Zoologische Verhandelingen, 299, 1 - 706.

Cope, E. D. (1875) Report on the Reptiles brought by Professor James Orton from the middle and upper Amazon and western Peru. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 8 (2), 159 - 183.

Moravec, J., Smid, J., Stundl, J., Lehr, E. (2018) Systematics of Neotropical microteiid lizards (Gymnophthalmidae, Cercosaurinae), with the description of a new genus and species from the Andean montane forests. ZooKeys, 774, 105 - 139. https: // doi. org / 10.3897 / zookeys. 774.25332

Ribeiro-Junior, M. A. & Amaral, S. (2017) Catalogue of distribution of lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from the Brazilian Amazonia. IV. Alopoglossidae, Gymnophthalmidae. Zootaxa, 4269 (2), 151 - 196. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / zootaxa. 4269.2.1

Torres-Carvajal, O., Lobos, S. E., Venegas, P. J., Chavez, G., Aguirre-Penafiel, V., Zurita, D. & Echevarria, L. Y. (2016) Phylogeny and biogeography of the most diverse clade of South American gymnophthalmid lizards (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae, Cercosaurinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 99, 63 - 75. https: // doi. org / 10.1016 / j. ympev. 2016.03.006

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.