The Talamancan, or Lower Central American, highlands constitute the mountainous backbone of Costa Rica and western Panama and are home to numerous endemic taxa of amphibians and reptiles believed to have evolved in situ. This photo shows a westward view along the Pacific slope of the Panamanian portion of these highlands that usually is referred to as the Cordillera Central. The panoramic view ranges from the vicinities of the dam at La Fortuna (hidden behind the first few mountains) to Panama’s highest mountain, the southerly offset Volcán Barú. Along the approximately 40 km of continental divide shown here are the respective type localities of 12 currently valid reptile species described between 1894 and 2012. Two more very recently designated type localities lie marginally out of sight, to the right: the holotype and only known specimen of Sibon perissostichon Köhler, Lotzkat, and Hertz, 2010 was collected about 400 airline meters uphill from, and that of the new species of Celestus described herein was secured approximately 4 meters below, the photographer’s position on the terrace of the Lost and Found ecohostel. ' © Sebastian Lotzkat 961 www.mesoamericanherpetology.com www.eaglemountainpublishing.com Version of record:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A0C4B37B-459F-4FDF-B6FE-4D7F21363131 A new species of Celestus (Squamata: Anguidae) from western Panama SEBASTIAN LOTZKAT1, ANDREAS HERTZ1,2, AND GUNTHER KÖHLER1 1Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] (Corresponding author) 2Present address: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, Massachusetts 02125, United States. ABSTRACT: We describe the second specimen of the anguid genus Celestus collected in Panama as rep- resentative of a new species. The holotype of this new taxon was collected in the Reserva Forestal La Fortuna, about halfway between the type localities of the Panamanian endemic C. adercus and the Costa Rican endemic C. orobius. The new form is most similar to these two species, but differs from them and all other Mesoamerican congeners in scalation and coloration. Key Words: Cryptozoic diversity, endemism, Lower Central America, Reserva Forestal La Fortuna, Talamancan highlands RESUMEN: Describimos el segundo espécimen hallado en Panamá del género ánguido Celestus como re- presentante de una nueva especie. El holotipo de este nuevo taxón fue colectado en la Reserva Forestal La Fortuna, aproximadamente al medio entre las localidades tipo correspondientes al endémico panameño C. adercus y el endémico costarricense C. orobius. La nueva especie es más similar a estas dos especies, pero se diferencia de ellas, así como de las demás especies del género conocidas de Mesoamérica, en escamación y coloración. Palabras Claves: Baja Centroamérica, diversidad criptozoológica, endemismo, Reserva Forestal La Fortuna, tierras altas de Talamanca Citation: Lotzkat, S., A. Hertz, and G. Köhler. 2016. A new species of Celestus (Squamata: Anguidae) from western Panama. Mesoamerican Herpetology 3: 962–975. Copyright: Lotzkat et al., 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Received: 14 November 2016; Accepted: 1 December 2016; Published: 31 December 2016. Mesoamerican Herpetology 962 December 2016 | Volume 3 | Number 4 Lotzkat et al. New species of Celestus INTRODUCTION As currently understood, the genus Celestus is comprised of 32 species of small to medium-sized lizards distributed in the Caribbean region, with 12 species on the Mesoamerican mainland (Savage et al., 2008; Uetz and Hošek, 2016). The majority of these mainland species, i.e., C. atitlanensis Smith, 1950 (in Smith and Taylor, 1950), C. bivittatus (Boulenger, 1895), C. enneagrammus (Cope, 1861), C. ingridae (Werler and Campbell, 2004), C. legnotus (Campbell and Camarillo, 1994), C. montanus Schmidt, 1933, C. rozellae Smith, 1942, and C. scansorius McCranie and Wilson, 1996, are distributed in Mexico and Nuclear Central America, north of the Nicaraguan Depression. The remaining three species, i.e., C. cyanochloris Cope, 1894, C. hylaius Savage and Lips, 1993, and C. orobius Savage and Lips, 1993, occur in Costa Rica and are considered endemic to this country. The presence of Celestus in Panama first was revealed by Savage et al. (2008: 851), who described the species C. adercus Savage, Lips, and Ibáñez, 2008, based on a single specimen (MVUP 1894, formerly CHP 4870) from “the abandoned sawmill site on the continental divide, 9.7 km NNW of El Copé, Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera, La Pintada District, Coclé Province, Panama, ca. 850 m (8°40'04"N, 80°35'06"W),” which still constitutes the southern- as well as the easternmost documented occurrence for the genus on the Mesoamerican mainland (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Map of Costa Rica and western Panama showing the documented occurrences of the five species of Celestus now known from these countries. The symbols for the two discrete localities of C. adercus are slightly offset from each other for better visibility. Mesoamerican Herpetology 963 December 2016 | Volume 3 | Number 4 Lotzkat et al. New species of Celestus On 30 September 2009, Gabriel Palacios secured an anguid lizard on the grounds of the Lost and Found ecohostel (Fig. 2) in the Fortuna area of western Panama. While its exposed, well-visible claws clearly render it a member of the genus Celestus, we are unable to assign this specimen to any described species of Celestus known from Costa Rica, Panama, or the remaining Mesoamerican mainland. Consequently, below we describe it as repre- sentative of a new species. Fig. 2. Type locality of the new species of Celestus. (A) looking west from the central shade coffee plantation toward the dormitory building (left) and the central building with a terrace (right, largely hidden behind the tree) of the Lost and Found ecohostel; lower arrow indicates the lower end of the concrete stairs that ascend to the opposite side of central building and on which the holotype was found; the upper arrow shows protruding portion of the central terrace and approximate position of the photographer for (B), which presents a view looking northwest from the center of the hostel’s terrace and into the forest that covers the canyon west of the hostel; the arrow indicates the upper end of the aforementioned concrete stairs on which the holotype was found. ' © Sebastian Lotzkat (A) and Andreas Hertz (B) MATERIALS AND METHODS We recorded the geographic coordinates and elevation above sea level for the type locality using a Garmin etrex Summit GPS receiver with a barometric altimeter, and provide all of the coordinates in this work in decimal de- grees and WGS 1984 datum. Distributional data for Mesoamerican Celestus were taken from Savage (2002) and Savage et al. (2008). A standardized color description (capitalized colors and color codes that follow in parentheses are those of Smithe, 1975–1981) and photos of the holotype were taken before euthanasia through the pericardial injection of T61 (Intervet International, Unterschleißheim, Germany). The specimen was preserved by injecting a solution of 5–10 mL absolute (i.e., 36%) formalin in 1 L of 96% ethanol into the body cavity and thighs through the cloacal opening. Acronyms for museum collections follow Sabaj Pérez (2014). We obtained comparative morphological data for other species of Celestus from the literature (Cope, 1894; Savage and Lips, 1993; Savage, 2002; Köhler, 2008; Savage et al., 2008) and through an examination of the holotype of C. adercus (MVUP 1894), photographs of the holotype of C. orobius (LACM 138540), and photographs of one additional living specimen of each of these two species. We took snout–vent length (SVL) measurements to the nearest mm along a meter stick, and other mea- surements to the nearest 0.1 mm with precision calipers and the aid of a dissecting microscope. Morphological terminology such as scale nomenclature follows Savage and Lips (1993), Lotzkat (2014), and especially Savage et al. (2008). The general format of the species description follows Savage et al. (2008). Mesoamerican Herpetology 964 December 2016 | Volume 3 | Number 4 Lotzkat et al. New species of Celestus RESULTS In Table 1, we compare the key morphological characteristics of the specimen from La Fortuna to those of the four known Lower Central American species of Celestus as provided by Savage and Lips (1993), Savage (2002), Köhler (2008), and especially by Savage et al. (2008). After employing the keys, descriptions, and illustrations provided by these authors, this specimen cannot be identified as a representative of any species known from Costa Rica or Panama, or the remaining Mesoamerican mainland. Therefore, we describe it as a new species below. Table 1. Pholidotic characters of Celestus from Costa Rica and Panama. Values and specimen numbers are taken from the literature (Savage and Lips,1993; Savage, 2002; Savage et al., 2008), except for the new species. Celestus Celestus adercus Celestus hylaius Celestus orobius Celestus laf sp. nov. Characters cyanochloris (n = 1) (n = 12) (n = 1) (n = 1) (n = 7) Loreals 3 2 2–3 1–2 2 Canthals present ii+iii ii+iii ii+iii ii+iii ii+iii Postoculars and suboculars juxtaposed continuous juxtaposed juxtaposed juxtaposed Scales around midbody 31 32–34 31–33 33 33 Transverse rows of dorsals 79 65–73 76–81 66 72 Transverse rows of ventrals 86 73–77 84–92 75 77 4th toe lamellae 24 20–25 22–27 21–22 24–25 4th finger lamellae ? 16–18 15–20 15–17 19 Precloacal scales 8 10–12 10–12 8 10 Supracaudal scales keeled, striated keeled, striated striated keeled, striated keeled, striated Subcaudal scales keeled keeled some weakly keeled keeled keeled, striated Celestus laf sp. nov. Celestus sp.: Lotzkat (2014) Figs. 3–4 Holotype: SMF 90177, a juvenile, collected on the grounds of the Lost and Found ecohostel (8.67462°N, 82.21958°W; 1,250 m asl), Reserva Forestal La Fortuna, Chiriquí, Panama, on 30 September 2009 by Gabriel Palacios, Sebastian Lotzkat, and Andreas Hertz.