Two new species of semiaquatic Anolis (Squamata: Dactyloidae) from Costa Rica
Author
Chaves, Gerardo
0000-0002-4301-6569
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical (Museo de Zoología) de la Universidad de Costa Rica & cachi 13 @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4301 - 6569
cachi13@gmail.com
Author
Ryan, Mason J.
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA & Arizona Game and Fish Department, 5000 W Carefree Hwy, Phoenix, Arizona 85086
Author
Bolaños, Federico
0000-0002-7935-6418
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical (Museo de Zoología) de la Universidad de Costa Rica & Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica & federico. bolanos @ ucr. ac. cr; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 7935 - 6418
federico.bolanos@ucr.ac.cr
Author
Márquez, Cruz
0009-0003-2220-7379
Direccion, Conservacion, Restauracion y Desarrollo Sustentable de Ecosistemas Insulares; Parque Nacional Galapagos, Ecuador cruzkallw @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0009 - 0003 - 2220 - 7379
cruzkallw@gmail.com
Author
Köhler, Gunther
0000-0002-2563-5331
Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt a. M., Germany gkoehler @ senckenberg. de; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 2563 - 5331
gkoehler@senckenberg.de
Author
Poe, Steven
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA
text
Zootaxa
2023
2023-07-25
5319
2
249
262
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5319.2.6
journal article
57778
10.11646/zootaxa.5319.2.6
49b790fb-5325-46da-aa80-d36d2e1fcc1a
1175-5326
8182539
065A967F-2832-4BDF-890A-2EA852CACD74
Anolis riparius
,
new species
Holotype
. UCR 5579 (
Fig 6
) collected on
7 September 2009
by
Douglas Robinson
and his students; an adult male from
Pacuarito river
,
Pacuarito
10
Km
S-SW of
Pérez Zeledón
,
9.31390 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
880 masl
,
San José Province
,
Costa Rica
.
Paratypes
(all from
Costa Rica
:
San José Province
).
Adult
males
:
SMF 82183–82184
(collected
9 October 2002
by
Axel Fläschendräger
) from road
between Platanillo and San Isidro
,
9.31056 N
; -
83.77500 W
, ca.
850 masl
;
SMF 92428
(collected
15 February 2010
by
Gunther Köhler
) from
1 km
N Cedral
9.35789 N
, -
83.56094 W
,
1425 masl
; UCR 7893 (collected
24 August 1979
by Douglas Robinson) from I.85 Km NE Alfombra,
9.3167 N
, -
83.7722 W
, ca.
930 masl
; MCZ-R 18171 (collected
15 December 2007
by Steve Poe and Mason J. Ryan) from Alfombra, 12 Km S-SW of Pérez Zeledón (
9.31670 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
930 masl
);
MSB 95201
(collected on
10 January 2009
by
Mason
J
Ryan
and
Ian Latella
) from
Alfombra
, 12
Km
S-SW of
Pérez Zeledón
(
9.31670 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
930 masl
)
.
Adult
females
:
SMF 82185–82186
(collected
9 October 2002
by
Axel Fläschendräger
) from road
between Platanillo and San Isidro
(ca.
850 masl
)
;
SMF 83093–83094
(collected
9 October 2002
by
Axel Fläschendräger
) from near
Platanillo
(ca.
850 masl
)
;
SMF 92429
(collected
15 February 2010
by
Gunther Köhler
) from
1 km
N Cedral
(
9.35789 N
, -
83,56094 W
,
1425 masl
)
;
UCR 5580 (same data of the
holotype
); UCR 15959 (collected
3 March 2001
by
Mason
J
Ryan
) from
Mollejones
(
9.22930 N
, -
83.64200 W
,
800 masl
)
; UCR 16162 (collected
2 July 2001
by Mason J Ryan) from Alfombra, 12 Km S-SW of Pérez Zeledón (
9.31670 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
930 masl
);
MCZ
R-186143 (collected
15 December 2007
by
Steve Poe
and
Mason
J
Ryan
) from
Alfombra
, 12
Km
S-SW of
Pérez Zeledón
(
9.31670 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
930 masl
)
;
MSB 95200
(collected
15 December 2007
by
Steve Poe
and
Mason
J
Ryan
) from
Alfombra
, 12
Km
S-SW of
Pérez Zeledón
(
9.31670 N
, -
83.77220 W
,
930 masl
)
;
UCR 16638 (collected
15 March 2002
by
Franklin Aguilar
) from
Fila Piedras Blancas area
(
9.50130 N
, -
83.91280 W
,
900 masl
)
in the
Zona Protectora Los Santos
in the
Río Savegre
basin
.
FIGURE 6.
A) Dorsal body and B) dewlap views of
Anolis riparius
in life. C) Dorsal view of head and D) Small middorsal scales at the base of the tail of paratype (UCR 5579) of
A. riparius
between breakpoint (a) and the first enlarge middorsal caudal scale (b). Photos A and B by David Laurencio and C and D by Gerardo Chaves.
Diagnosis
.
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
and
A. aquaticus
are the only semiaquatic Middle American anoles that have a large orange-red dewlap with yellow in males (
Fig. 6B
).
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
differs from
A. aquaticus
in possessing smaller dorsal scales of the head and body (e.g., 15–19 scales across the snout between the second canthals in
A. riparius
sp. nov.
versus
7–14 in
A. aquaticus
,
Fig. 5B
), and is phylogenetically distinct (see below).
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
is distinguished from the other Middle American semiaquatic anoles as follows: from
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
by male dewlap color (chocolate brown with ill-defined brick red horizontal stripes in
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
); from
A. lionotus
and
A. poecilopus
by male dewlap color (solid yellow-orange in
A. lionotus
and
A. poecilopus
), lack of postcloacal scales in males (usually present in
A. lionotus
and
A. poecilopus
), and possession of zero to three enlarged rows of middorsal scales (a broadband of 10–24 enlarged middorsal scale rows in
A. poecilopus
and
A. lionotus
); from
A. barkeri
by smaller size (maximum SVL
73 mm
in
A. riparius
sp. nov.
,
91 mm
in
A. barkeri
), presence of distinctly expanded toe pads (ratio width of expanded pads / width of distal phalanx
1.8–2.2 in
A. riparius
sp. nov.
versus
1.4–1.6 in
A. barkeri
), and presence of a single row of middorsal caudal scales (double row in
A. barkeri
).
Description of the
holotype
(
Figure 6
)
. Adult male as indicated by dewlap and everted hemipenes SVL
73.3 mm
; HL
20.1 mm
; HL/SVL 0.27; HW
10.7 mm
; EOH
1.64 mm
; IL
1.45 mm
; IL/EOH.88; SLS-I 0.1; AGL
31.26 mm
; FL
18.34 mm
; T4L
15.95 mm
; T4W
1.54 mm
; TL 135.00 mm, tail complete; TL/SVL 1.84; TH
5.994 mm
and TW
3.42 mm
. 18 scales across the snout between second canthals; two scales separate the nasal opening from rostral scale; ten postrostral scales between supralabials; 12 supralabial scales from rostral scale to level of middle of eye; four scales separating supraorbital semicircles; 2 rows of scales separate subocular scales from supralabials; one slightly elongate superciliary scale; nine scales separating interparietal scale from supraorbital semicircles; four enlarged scales in supraocular disk; eight loreal scales in column just anterior to eye; 12 postmental scales posteriorly in contact with mental scale between infralabials; 15 scales in the loreal region; 13 rows of single scales in the dewlap (21–48 scales per row, rows somewhat irregular); seven enlarge middorsal scale row; 16 dorsal scales in 5% of SVL; 12 ventral scales in 5% of SVL; 220 scales around midbody; 15 expanded lamellae under fourth toe; 23 small middorsal caudal scales before the first large caudal scale (
Fig. 6D
). Preoccipital, enlarged infralabial, tail crest, middorsal, postcloacal scales absent; supraocular disc presents with small scales. Frontal region of head concave; scales in supraocular disc unicarinate; rostral scale with very weak cleft and overlaps mental scale; ear opening vertically ovoid; dorsal edge of ear lacks ornamentation; mental scale completely divided posteriorly and with its posterior edge convex; dewlap extends well on to chest with anterior insertion at level of anterior portion of the eye and without protruding scales at distal edge; dorsal scales strongly keeled and uniform in size; ventral scales in diagonal rows keeled and larger than dorsal scales; lateral scales homogeneous; tail is compressed and triangular in cross-section with the base taller than wide; middorsal caudal scales in single row and its size is less than three times than the adjacent scales (
Fig. 6D
); the longest toe of adpressed limb reaches anterior to eye and, supradigital scales keeled and multicarinate.
Color in Life
(based on field notes and color photographs;
Fig. 6A and 6B
). Dewlap yellow with orange-red horizontal streaks. Dorsal ground color olive to chestnut brown with transverse olive-green bars across dorsum down flanks extending to tail. A dirty cream-colored line extends posteriorly from the labial scales down the side of the body. Scattered small greenish spots are present on the dorsum. The dorsum and tail are marked with olive-green transverse bars. The limbs are marked with pale green to yellowish transverse bars with small punctuations.
Variation
. Size of reproductive males (69.6 ± 5.3,
65.8–73.3 mm
) was larger than females (58.0 ± 6.0,
49.1–65.1 mm
).
Table 1
shows variation in the lepidosis characters of
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
. Individuals exhibited little variation in coloration. Although some individuals were dark, the amount and distribution of the light bands and dots were similar among all specimens.
Hemipenis morphology.
The completely everted hemipenis of SMF 92428 (
Fig. 7B
) is a stout bilobed organ. The sulcus spermaticus is bordered by well-developed sulcal lips and opens into two broad concave areas, one on each lobe. A small asulcate ridge is present. The apex is strongly calyculate, truncus with transverse folds.
Etymology
. The specific epithet is an adjective taken directly from Latin (
riparius
= of stream banks) about the riparian habitat of this species.
Distribution
.
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
is known from streams in the riparian gallery forests of the Pacuar, Guabo, and Savegre river basins (
Fig. 1
) from
100 to 1450 masl
. This species inhabits lowland and premontane tropical wet forest life zones.
Ecology
. Little is known about the ecology and life history of
Anolis riparius
sp. nov.
but it seems to share lifehistory traits with
A. aquaticus
and
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
. What follows is based mainly on field observations by MJR from Alfombra and additional unnamed streams of the Rio Guabo watershed. This species may be common in small order and headwater streams but absent from some other streams within a watershed. During the day this species may be found perched on rocks and boulders along streams and can jump into the water or crawl into interstitial cracks between rocks and boulders when pursued. At night these lizards are found sleeping on moss mats, fern fronds, and other large leafy riparian vegetation, especially near the splash zone around boulders. We have also found juveniles and adults sleeping on vertical rock walls and boulders in and next to waterfalls. We have observed these lizards sleeping from 0.5 to 2.0 meters above the ground. At Alfombra on
21 December 2007
MJR and SP found a congregation of seven gravid females on the same fern-covered boulder. One meter from the sleeping females was a cluster of 6 loosely aggregated eggs that were stuck to the moss on the same large boulder.
Morphological comparisons of the two new species and
Anolis aquaticus
.
Anolis aquaticus
is the smallest species in this complex. It has fewer scales for all traits except for the number of scales between the suboculars and supralabials (
Table 1
).
Anolis aquaticus
has relatively larger dorsal scales, whereas
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
and
A. riparius
sp. nov.
have small, granular dorsal scales that result in a higher number of total of scales around the body (more than 160, whereas
A. aquaticus
has 160 or fewer). The number of scales between the second canthals is close to half in number in
A. aquaticus
relative to the other species (
Table 1
,
Fig. 4B
,
5B
,
6B
), indicating the larger size of the scales in
A. aquaticus
. The number of small middorsal caudal scale varies between
0 to 10 in
A. aquaticus
(
Fig. 5C
) while the other species has more than 20 small middorsal caudal scales (
Fig. 4D and 4D
). However, the most striking feature separating one of the three species of this group is the color of the male dewlap. The red and yellow dewlap of
A. aquaticus
and
A. riparius
sp. nov.
(
Fig. 5A
and
6B
) contrasts with the dark brown dewlap of
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
(
Fig. 4B
). We did not find any difference in hemipenes morphology among
A. aquaticus
,
A. riparius
sp. nov.
, and
A. robinsoni
sp. nov.
(
Fig. 7
).