Leiocephalus, a Hypothetical Excursion
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WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSIRCF REPTILES • VOL15, N &O 4AMPHIBIANS • DEC 2008 189 • 25(1):1–12 • APR 2018 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES . ChasingDistribution Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: of Two Species of On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 Curly-tailed. The Shared History of Treeboas (CorallusLizards, grenadensis) and Humans onGenus Grenada: Leiocephalus, A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCHin aARTICLES Metropolitan Park, and the . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida Rediscovery .............................................Brian J. ofCamposano, a Kenneth Nominate L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, Subspecies and Michael Granatosky 212 CONSERVATION ALERTMiguel A. Landestoy T. and Francis O. Reyes . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 Escuela. More Than de Biología, Mammals Universidad ............................................................................................................................... Autónoma de Santo Domingo, República Dominicana....................................... ([email protected]) 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 Photographs by the senior author. HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 Abstract.—TwoPROFILE Hispaniolan endemic species of lizards in the genus Leiocephalus (L. lunatus Cochran 1934 and L. personatus Cope 1862). Kraig Adler: are A parapatricLifetime Promoting in Herpetology an urban ................................................................................................ park in Santo Domingo, capital of Michaelthe Dominican L. Treglia 234 Republic. In the course of this study,COMMENTARY we unexpectedly rediscovered the long-overlooked nominate subspecies of Leiocephalus lunatus 1 km inland from .theThe vicinityTurtles Have of Been the Watching type Me locality ........................................................................................................................ as what appears to be a relict population. Eric Two Gangloff congeners 238 in the same urban setting withinBOOK theirREVIEW natural ranges is an uncommon scenario. We provide detailed distributional data for both species within the. ParqueThreatened MiradorAmphibians ofdel the WorldSur, editedand alsoby S.N. report Stuart, M.surviving Hoffmann, populationsJ.S. Chanson, N.A. of Cox, L. l. lunatus west of its type locality. R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243 he genus Leiocephalus (monotypic family Leiocephalidae) 1939 is restricted to the south-central Dominican lowlands, comprises 23 extantCONSERVATION species on RESEARCH Cuba, REPORTS:Hispaniola, Summaries the of Publishedwhereas Conservation the nominateResearch Reports subspecies ................................. of the 245 other, L. lunatus luna- T NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 Bahamian Archipelago, NEWBRIEFS and the ............................................................................................................................... Cayman Islands (Hedges tus, has been known....................................................... only from the coastal 248 western parts of the 2018). Hispaniola supports EDITORIAL the INFORMATIONgreatest diversity, ............................................................................................................................... with 12 spe- greater Santo Domingo area...................... (the Distrito 251 Nacional and Santo FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252 cies endemic either to the main island or one of its satellites Domingo Oeste Province). (i.e., Isla Alto Velo and Île de La Gonâve). Commonly referred to as “curlytails” or “curly-tailed lizards,” these are diurnally Materials and Methods active terrestrial lizards that occur primarilyFront Cover. in Shannon lowland Plummer. areas. The BackParque Cover. Mirador Michael Kern del Sur (Fig. 3) is an elongated green At least four species have been reportedTotat toet velleseque inhabit audant urban mo envi- spaceTotat with et velleseque a relatively audant mo continuous canopy. It is approximately estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil ronments (e.g., Rodríguez Schettinoerspienimus, et al. 1999; quos accullabo. Powell Ilibus and erspienimus,6 km in quos length accullabo. and Ilibus averages roughly 200 m in width (in a Henderson 2008; Henderson and Powellaut dolor apicto2009). invere This pe dolum is the northeastaut dolor apicto to invere southwest pe dolum orientation), with the narrowest point first reported instance on Hispaniola,fugiatis where maionsequat two species eumque occur at itsfugiatis eastern maionsequat terminus eumque (to the Avenida Jiménez Moya). The moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- in close proximity and are nearly sympatricma derrovitae in anvoluptam, urban as setting.quos nearlytur ma continuousderrovitae voluptam, park as is dissected only by the Avenida Italia One species, the Hispaniolanaccullabo. Maskless Curly-tailed and partially by the Calle Pedro A. Bobea. Lizard (L. lunatus; Fig. 1), with six described subspecies We (generally two observers) searched for lizards on vari- (Powell and Gifford 2010), is largely restricted to an inland ous days and at times when curlytails are known to be active “linear-coastal” distance of 40 m (Gali and Schwartz 1982) (see below) from 11 May to 28 August 2017, walking sec- on seaside limestone bedrock and beaches of the coastal tions ranging from 1 to 2.5 km in length, but not neces- plains in the southeastern Dominican Republic and several sarily in straight lines. Although we usually followed paths neighboring satellite islands (islas Catalina, Catalinita, and or sidewalks, we ventured into the park in order to cover as Saona). Another species, the Hispaniolan Masked Curly- much of the terrain as possible. We recorded more than 90% tailed Lizard (L. personatus; Fig. 2), with 12 recognized sub- of the tracks walked and took coordinates using a GPS por- species (Henderson and Powell 2009), is widely distributed, table unit (Garmin GPSMAP 64s) and/or a cellphone. In mostly in well-shaded habitats of the interior, although at addition, from 24 May to 8 September 2017, we surveyed times in coastal areas where L. lunatus is absent (Schwartz (usually only one observer) the long stretch of coastline (the 1969; Schwartz and Henderson 1991). Of the two taxa Malecón) that should comprise the imprecise type locality of known to occur in the capital, L. p. trujilloensis Mertens L. lunatus, essentially the entire coast of the Distrito Nacional Copyright © 2018. Miguel A. Landestoy T. All rights reserved. 1 IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324 LANDESTOY T. AND REYES IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 25(1):1–12 • APR 2018 Fig. 1. An adult male Hispaniolan Maskless Curly-tailed Lizard, Leiocephalus lunatus lunatus (Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology Herpetology Observation 40), from the Parque Mirador del Sur, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic. Fig. 2. An adult male Hispaniolan Masked Curly-tailed Lizard, Leiocephalus personatus trujilloensis (Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology Herpetology Observation 43), from the Parque Mirador del Sur, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic. 2 LANDESTOY T. AND REYES IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 25(1):1–12 • APR 2018 Fig. 3. Parque Mirador del Sur in the Distrito Nacional, Santo Domingo, showing the parapatric distribution of the two species of Leiocephalus found in the park. The red polygon represents the distribution of L. personatus trujilloensis in the park, whereas the green polygon in the southwestern corner of the park represents that of L. l. lunatus. Adapted from a Google Earth© image. Fig. 4. The Distrito Nacional and Santo Domingo Oeste between the Río Haina and Río Ozama showing recent and historical sites where Leiocephalus lunatus lunatus was encountered. Blue arrows mark the sites where populations were found during this study: (1) Parque Mirador del Sur, 1 km inland from the vicinity of the type locality (the Malecón; see also Fig. 3); (2) the coast at Manresa Loyola (18.42344°N, 70.00358°W); and (3) the coast in front of the Parque Atlántida and Casa de España (18.42638°N, 69.98007°W). Red arrows mark historical sites (Schwartz 1969). The actual type locality is too imprecise to plot. Adapted from Google Maps©. along the Avenida