Potamites ecpleopus (Cope, 1876)

Llanqui, Irbin B., Y. Salas, Cinthya & Oblitas, Melissa P., 2019, A preliminary checklist of amphibians and reptiles from the vicinity of La Nube Biological Station, Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, Peru, Check List 15 (5), pp. 773-796 : 786

Potamites ecpleopus (Cope, 1876)

Material examined. MUSA 4101; PT2, 28.IX.2013.

Identification. A small lizard, SVL 50–84 mm in males and 50–71 mm in females. It can be identified by hav- ing 6 longitudinal rows of dorsal keeled and tuberculate scales; 36–45 transverse dorsal scale rows. Ventral scales rectangular, slightly imbricate and arranged in transverse rows; flanks with medium to small trihedral tubercles. Tail laterally compressed with 4 middorsal rows of keeled scales. Frontonasal divided. Dorsum dark brown; venter cream, usually with brown spots. Flanks with 1–5 ocelli, black with white or yellow center. A similar species in adjacent localities is: P. erythrocuaris , but it has 30–33 transverse dorsal scale rows and frontonasal undivided ( Duellman 1978, Dixon and Soini 1986, Ávila-Pires 1995, Doan and Castoe 2005, Chávez and Catenazzi 2014).

Distribution. Potamites ecpleopus is widely distributed in the Amazonian lowlands and foothills of cloud forests of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru up to 1500 m a.s.l. ( Ávila-Pires 1995, Chávez and Catenazzi 2014, Ribeiro-Júnior and Amaral 2017, Uetz and Hošek 2019).