Genus Ophiodes Wagler, 1828

South American Glass Lizards

Figs. 24–25

Ophiodes Wagler, 1828:740 . Type species. Pygopus striatus, Spix, 1824:25 .

Diagnosis. Species of Ophiodes have (1) claw sheath, absent, (2) contact between the nasal and rostral scales, present, (3) scales in contact with the nasal scale, five, (4) postnasal scales, one, (5) position of the nostril in the nasal scale, posterior, (6) keels on dorsal body scales, absent, (7) digits per limb, none, (8) longest toe lamellae, none, (9) dorsal scale rows, 130–171, (10) relative head width, n/a, (11) relative rostral height, n/a,(12) relative frontonasal length, n/a, (13) relative interparietal distance, n/a, (14) relative axilla-groin distance, n/a.

From Diploglossus, we distinguish Ophiodes by the lack of limbs (versus limbs present in Diploglossus), and the number of dorsal scales (130–171 versus 88–99).

Content. Six species (Table 3): Ophiodes enso, O. fragilis, O. intermedius, O. luciae, O. striatus, and O. vertebralis .

Distribution. Ophiodes occurs in southern South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) (Fig. 25).

Etymology. The Greek stem (ophio -) means “snake” and Latin suffix (- odes) means “likeness,” hence “like a snake.”

Remarks. Ophiodes is a monophyletic clade with a Bayesian support value of 100% and a ML bootstrap value of 77% (Fig. 2). Cacciali & Scott (2015) provided a key to most of the species of Ophiodes and indicated the presence of several undescribed species.