Alopoglossus brevifrontalis ( Boulenger, 1912 )

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 : 383-384

Alopoglossus brevifrontalis ( Boulenger, 1912)

Distribution: Widespread in the Amazonia of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia ( Ribeiro-Júnior &Amaral 2017). In Colombia it is distributed throughout most of the Orinoquia and Amazonia regions ( Fig. 4A ).

Similar species: This species is differentiated from all the other sympatric and similar species of Alopoglossus in the cis-Andean region due to the presence of occipital scales (absent in A. atriventris , A. avilapiresae , and A. buckleyi ); and for the presence of prefrontal scales (absent in A. bicolor ). In addition, Alopoglossus brevifrontalis may be confused with Arthrosaura reticulata given their external morphological resemblance. However, Al. brevifrontalis can be easily distinguished in having four supraocular scales (three in Ar. reticulata ); three pairs of chinshields (four in Ar. reticulata ); and mostly squared ventral scales in the medial rows (rectangular in Ar. reticulata ). For a more detailed description see Ávila-Pires (1995).

Remarks: Ptychoglossus nicefori was considered as a junior synonym of “ Ptychoglossus brevifrontalis ” (= A. brevifrontalis ) by Peloso & Ávila-Pires (2010), since they considered that the morphological differences between them were not enough to be different 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.