Gymnophthalmus marconaterai García-Pérez & Schargel, 2017

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 : 392

Gymnophthalmus marconaterai García-Pérez & Schargel, 2017

Distribution: Western Venezuela in the Llanos region ( García-Pérez & Schargel 2017) and adjacent Colombia. For Colombia it is known from a single specimen from northeastern Orinoquia, department of Vichada ( Fig. 4E ).

Similar species: The color pattern of Gymnophthalmus marconaterai greatly differs from that of other sympatric congenerics in having a complete and well defined dorsolateral stripe that extends from the postorbital region to beyond of the base of the tail (inconspicuous and fading away towards the midbody in G. cryptus and G. speciosus group, extending to the base of the tail in G. leucomystax ); a white lateral stripe, similar in width to the dorsolateral stripe, that extends from the ear opening to the tail (when present, the lateral stripe is not well defined and fades before the groin in G. cryptus , G. leucomystax , and G. speciosus group); white venter (dark in G. cryptus , dark with white reticulations in G. speciosus group); ventral surfaces of palms and soles white (dark or with dark mottling in G. cryptus and G. speciosus group); and pink-salmon colored tail (blue in G. cryptus , grey in G. leucomystax , and reddish in G. speciosus group). Moreover, it differs in having 13 scales around midbody (15, rarely 14, in G. cryptus ); and 3+2+1, temporal formula with the occipital scale in contact with the temporals of both the third and second rows (3+2+2, with the occipital scale in contact only with the superior temporal of the third row in G. leucomystax ). For a more detailed description see García-Pérez & Schargel (2017) and Recoder et al. (2018).

Remarks: Gymnophthalmus marconaterai was previously known only from the Llanos of Apure in Venezuela ( García-Pérez & Schargel 2017). In this work, we report it for the first time in Colombia in the municipality of Puerto Carreño, department of Vichada, which is ca. 92 km S of the type locality of the species.

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.