Catalog of the Family Diploglossidae Harold De Lisle 2017 Cover: Diploglossus fasciatus Photo by Daniel R. Lordelo Back cover: Celestus warreni Photo by Milo Ko řínek Email:
[email protected] Family Diploglossidae The lizard family Diploglossidae is distributed in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. The family contains three genera Celestus has 33 species and Diploglossus with 14 species. Both share a similar snout, elongated cylindrical body with short well developed limbs. The genus Ophiodes has 5 species. As the Latin name suggests, they have a snake-like body, with not front limbs and only small rudimentary hind limbs. The family species have a body covered by cycloid scales that are underlain by osteoderms having a distinctive, peaked, gliding surface. The family contains both egglayers and viviparous species. The larger species can produce more than 20 offspring. Savage et al (2008) list the members of the Diploglossidae with the claw as the definitive character: exposed claws in Celestus and claws sheated in the other genera. Pyron & Burbrink (2013) found Diploglossus and Celestus are strongly supported as paraphyletic with respect to each other and to Ophiodes , but they had data on only six taxa. Abbreviations of museums holding the types are as follows AMNH - American Museum of Natural History, Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Herpetology), 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, New York 10024, USA. BMNH – The Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Cromwell Road, London SW75BD, United Kingdom. CM - Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. ENCB - Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas Campus Santo Tomás, 11350 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico FMNH - Field Museum, Division of Amphibians and Reptiles, Roosevelt Road at Lake ShoreDrive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA HMZ - Hamburg University Zoology Museum, Hamburg, Germany KU - University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, Division of Herpetology, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA .