HERPETOLOGICAL JOURNAL 20: 231–236, 2010 A new species of Anolis of the aequatorialis group (Squamata: Iguania) from the central Andes of Colombia Julián Andrés Velasco1, Paul David A. Gutiérrez-Cárdenas2 & Andrés Quintero-Angel1 1Grupo de Ecología Animal, Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia 2Grupo Herpetológico de Antioquia (sede Caldas), Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia We describe a new species of the Anolis aequatorialis group from the central Andes of Colombia. The new species, Anolis anoriensis, is similar to A. eulaemus Boulenger, which occurs in both the western and central Andes, and was positioned in the eulaemus subgroup of the aequatorialis group. Anolis anoriensis differs from A. eulaemus in having smaller interparietal scales and a green body coloration with a darker anterior part of the dewlap. We also for the first time describe the coloration of Anolis eulaemus, which is almost exclusively brown with a diffused light brown dewlap. Key words: Anolis anoriensis sp. nov., taxonomy, morphology INTRODUCTION distributions in Colombia and Ecuador: A. antioquiae, A. eulaemus, A. fitchi, A. gemmosus, A. maculigula, A. meg- he Andes of Colombia are a recognized global biodi- alopithecus and A. ventrimaculatus. Tversity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000). However, many In this paper we describe a new species of Anolis of taxonomic groups have been poorly sampled in this re- the eulaemus subgroup of alpha anoles (Etheridge, 1959), gion, despite a large number of species discoveries in the from the Department of Antioquia in the Cordillera Cen- last decade. Anolis lizards are one of these poorly studied tral of Colombia. The new species is very similar to A. groups, and recent fieldwork has allowed for the dis- eulaemus from the central and western Andes of Colom- covery of new species and the increase in distributional bia, and to A. fitchi from the Andes of Ecuador. It differs records (Poe & Yanez-Miranda, 2007; Poe et al., 2008). from these species in dewlap scalation, interparietal size In Colombia, Anolis lizards are represented by two large and coloration. Due to the lack of a colour description clades: the putative Dactyloa (sensu Guyer & Savage, for A. eulaemus, and to facilitate comparisons between 1986) and the monophyletic Norops (Nicholson, 2002). both species, we also provide life coloration data for A. Dactyloid anoles are considered the most basal group eulaemus. within the anoline radiation (Poe, 2004; Nicholson et al., 2005) and many species have been discovered recently MATERIALS AND METHODS (Huleback et al., 2007; Poe et al., 2009). There are several taxonomic groupings for the Dactyloa clade that are dis- The description is based on material deposited in the tinguished by external traits, but no phylogenetic analysis collection of the Herpetology Museum of Antioquia Uni- has yet been performed. The newly discovered species versity (MHUA, Medellín, Colombia). The terminology have been assigned to these taxonomic groups based on for external morphology follows Williams et al. (1995). a combination of characters and external similarity with Osteological characters are based on Poe (1998, 2004) previously discovered ones (Huleback et al., 2007). and Etheridge (1959), and the evolutionary species con- The Anolis aequatorialis group is such a taxonomic cept was used (Wiley 1978). All measurements were taken group, and is known to inhabit north-western South Amer- using digital callipers to the nearest 0.1 mm, and means ica (Colombia and Ecuador). This group is recognized ± standard deviation are shown. Sex was determined by by the following combination of characters (Williams, the presence of hemipenes in males. Osteological char- 1976): 1) dorsal scales uniform in size (enlarged mid- acters were examined on cleared and stained specimens. dorsal scales in some species); 2) smooth ventral scales We compared this new taxon with the other species in the (larger than dorsal scales); 3) keeled head scales (uni- or aequatorialis group listed in Appendix 1. The following multicarinate); 4) large male dewlap (extending beyond collections and their abbreviations are cited in the text and to forelimbs); 5) narrow toepads; and 6) variable size of appendix: Colegio San Jose de Medellín (CSJ); Escuela interparietal scales (absent in some species). Williams Politécnica Nacional del Ecuador (EPN); Instituto de (1985) recognized two subgroups based on the mor- Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, phology of the toe lamellae. The eulaemus subgroup is Bogotá, Colombia (ICN); Instituto Alexander von Hum- characterized by toepads that overlap the first phalange boldt, Claustro de San Agustín, Villa de Leyva, Colombia (Type I), whereas the aequatorialis subgroup has non- (IAvH); Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, overlapping toepads (Type II) (see Williams, 1963). The Quito, Ecuador (QCAZ); Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias eulaemus subgroup comprises seven species with Andean Naturales, Quito, Ecuador (MECN). Correspondence: Julián Andrés Velasco, Colombia Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Carrera 25 # 4-39, Cali, Colombia. E-mail: [email protected] 231 J.A. Velasco et al. and A. megalopithecus in the presence of an interparietal scale; A. antioquiae and A. megalopithecus lack the in- terparietal scale. Anolis anoriensis differs from A. mirus, A. parilis, A. kunayalae and A. aequatorialis in having narrow toepads that overlap the first phalanx (A. mirus, A. parilis, A. kunayalae and A. aequatorialis share the char- acter that the toepad does not overlap the first phalanx (the Norops condition; see Figure 1 of Williams, 1963). Anolis anoriensis differs further from A.aequatorialis in female dewlap size (A. aequatorialis has a dewlap extending pos- terior to axillae; the dewlap in A. anoriensis is smaller, not extending posterior to axillae). Anolis anoriensis is very similar to A. eulaemus and A. fitchi but differs in interpa- rietal size and coloration. Anolis anoriensis exhibits an Fig. 1. A) Anolis anoriensis adult male, locality type, interparietal scale slightly smaller than A. eulaemus (A. Municipio de Anori, Departamento de Antioquia. B) anoriensis mean 1.2±0.1 mm; A. eulaemus 1.7±0.1 mm; Anolis anoriensis adult male, Municipio de Amalfi Mann–Whitney U-test=56, P=0.03; Table 1). (Cordillera Central), Departamento de Antioquia. C) Anolis anoriensis differs further from A. eulaemus and Anolis eulaemus adult male, from the western Andes, A. fitchi in life coloration pattern (A. eulaemus in life is eastern slope, Departamento de Antioquia. D) Anolis almost exclusively brown, A. fitchi is green-yellowish, eulaemus adult male, from Municipio de Filandia, and A. anoriensis is green). Similarly, A. anoriensis pos- Departamento del Quindío, Cordillera Central. sesses a darker anterior part of the dewlap, whereas A. eulaemus posesses a diffused light brown dewlap (Fig. 1). Furthermore, Anolis anoriensis differs from A. fitchi in dewlap scalation and female dewlap size. The male RESULTS dewlap of A. anoriensis possesses rows of several scales separated by skin interspersed with scales, whereas the Anolis anoriensis sp. nov. (Fig. 1A, B) dewlap of A. fitchi has single or double rows separated by Anolis “anoriensis” – Molina-Zuluaga & Gutiérrez- naked skin. The female dewlap in A. anoriensis is small Cárdenas (2007). (not extending posterior to axillae) and has two or more scales separated by skin interspersed with a few scales. Holotype. MHUA 11719 (field number JAV 218), adult By contrast, the female dewlap in A. fttchi extends poste- male, collected on 10–13 January 2005 by Julián Velasco, rior to the axillae and exhibits a single or double row of Rosario Castañeda, and Paul D. Gutiérrez. scales separated by naked skin. Type locality. Colombia: Vereda El Retiro, Anorí mu- Description (scores for holotype in parentheses). Head nicipality, Antioquia department, 6°59'00"N, 75°8'05"W, scales are small and unicarinate; 11–15 scales between 1374 m. second canthals (14); scales of frontal depression unicari- nate and multicarinate, anterior frontal scales larger than Paratypes. MHUA 11720 (JAV 220; juvenile male), posterior ones. 5–8 (7) scales bordering the rostral pos- MHUA 11721 (JAV 217; adult female): same collect- teriorly; 8–11 (10) scales between supranasals. Anterior ing data as holotype. MHUA 11722 (JAV 215; juvenile nasal in contact with rostral and first supralabial; supraor- female), MHUA 11723–11724 (JAV 213–14; juvenile bital semicircles separated by 4–5 (5) scales, the medial males), MHUA 11725 (JAV 216; juvenile male), MHUA scales smaller than lateral ones; scales of supraocular disc 11728, MHUA 11726 (MRC 080–81; juvenile females) not strongly differentiated, unicarinate, varying continu- and MHUA 11727 (MRC 088; juvenile male): Vereda El ally in size (holotype), or have several enlarged scales Roble, Anorí municipality, Antioquia department, Co- (1–3) in MHUA 11725–11726 and MHUA 11727; one lombia, same date and collectors as holotype. MHUA elongated supercilliary followed by two small scales and 11263 (PDG 572; adult male) and MHUA 11284 (PDG a series of granules; 6–10 (7) loreal rows of equal size; 570; adult female): Vereda El Roble, Anorí municipality, temporal and supratemporal scales conical; intertemporal Antioquia department, Colombia, collected on 20 March scale row largest and unicarinate. Interparietal larger than 2004 by Paul D. Gutiérrez. surrounding scales, with scales lateral to it about one- half of