CORDYLIDAE

Krysko, Kenneth L., Burgess, Joseph P., Rochford, Michael R., Gillette, Christopher R., Cueva, Daniel, Enge, Kevin M., Somma, Louis A., Stabile, Jennifer L., Smith, Dustin C., Wasilewski, Joseph A., Kieckhefer Iii, Guy N., Granatosky, Michael C. & Nielsen, Stuart V., 2011, 3028, Zootaxa 3028, pp. 1-64 : 45

CORDYLIDAE

The Gorongosa Girdled Lizard, Cordylus mossambicus FitzSimons 1958 , is indigenous to the Gorongosa Mountains of Mozambique and a limited region of the Chimanimani Mountains in Zimbabwe ( Branch 1998). In September 2006, JPB photographed a C. mossambicus (photographic voucher UF 153698; MorphoBank M88655; Fig. 64) in Crandon Gardens, Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Miami-Dade County (25.704317 o N, - 80.157883 o W) ( Krysko et al. 2010a). Donald Broadley tentatively identified this species as the Cape Crag lizard, Pseudocordylus microlepidotus ( Cuvier 1829) (see Krysko et al. 2010a), a species not legally imported and native to the Republic of South Africa ( Alexander & Marais 2007). However, we now recognize this as C. mossambicus after further consideration because it is a commonly imported species and was re-identified by Philipp Wagner. This further demonstrates the superiority of voucher specimens over photographs. We did not find this species at any other times during our ongoing surveys of Crandon Park from 1992–present ( Krysko et al. 2010a), suggesting it is a recent introduction. This species likely was released (stage 2). This represents the first known voucher for this family and species in Florida.