Cercosaura olivacea Gray, 1845

Uchoa, Lucas Rafael, Delfim, Fagner Ribeiro, Mesquita, Daniel Oliveira, Colli, Guarino Rinaldi, Garda, Adrian Antonio & Guedes, Thais B., 2022, Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from the Caatinga, northeastern Brazil: Detailed and updated overview, Vertebrate Zoology 72, pp. 599-659 : 599

Cercosaura olivacea Gray, 1845

Figs 5.2 and 14

Type locality.

State of Pernambuco, Brazil.

Distribution.

In the Caatinga it is registered in the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte. It is widespread in the Caatinga and occurs along seven ecoregions (Table 1 ; Appendix S3). Distributed in low to high elevation areas (36-909 m a.s.l.), with annual mean temperature 21 to 26°C, and average annual rainfall between 420 and 1,548 mm.

Ecological notes.

Fossorial and both diurnal and nocturnal (DOM pers. obs.). It is found in enclaves of open areas and in the brejos nordestinos ( Borges-Nojosa and Caramaschi 2003), more precisely on the edge or inside forests close to watercourses ( Recoder and Nogueira 2007; Macedo et al. 2008). Diet based mainly on arthropods, no information about the preferred items on the diet of this species is known. Oviparous, no detailed data is known about the number of eggs laid by the species, but it could be similar to other Cercosaura ( Balestrin et al. 2010; Cossovich et al. 2011; Sturaro et al. 2018).

Figures

Figure 5. Lizards recorded in the Caatinga region. 5.1 Calyptommatus sinebrachiatus; 5.2 Cercosaura olivacea; 5.3 Colobosaura modesta; 5.4 Colobosauroides carvalhoi; 5.5 Colobosauroides cearensis; 5.6 Dryadosaura nordestina; 5.7 Heterodactylus septentrionalis and 5.8 Leposoma baturitensis. Photograph credits: Ricardo Marques (5.1), Mauro Teixeira (5.4), Daniel Mesquita (5.3), Kassio Araujo (5.5), Marco A. Freitas (5.7), Adrian Garda (5.2, 5.6).