Echinosaura palmeri, BOULENGER, 1911

ECHINOSAURA PALMERI BOULENGER, 1911 View in CoL

( FIGS 6G, 6H, 7, 10F)

Echinosaura palmeri Boulenger, 1911: 23 View in CoL (original description). Holotype: Male (BMNH 1946.8.31.24) (see below) from ‘Noananoá [=Noanamá, Uzzell (1965)], Río San Juan, Choco, S.W. Colombia, 100 feet [~ 30 m a.s.l.]’.

Echinosaura horrida palmeri ( Boulenger, 1911) View in CoL – Uzzell, 1965: 84.

Type material: Boulenger (1911) described Echinosaura palmeri based on a single male deposited in the lizard collection of the British Museum, which he did not designate explicitly as the holotype. However, according to Art. 73.1.2 of the ICZN (1999), this specimen is assumed to be the holotype. Boulenger also did not provide a museum number for it. However, according to the data portal of the BMNH (http://data.nhm. ac.uk), there is a type specimen of E. palmeri ( BMNH 1946.8.31.24) whose information matches the original description. Thus, following the Art. 72.4.1.1 of the ICZN, we consider this specimen as the holotype of E. palmeri .

Diagnosis: The following data are based on 70 examined specimens (referred material listed in Supporting Information, Appendix SII). Echinosaura palmeri possesses the following characteristics: (1) snout pointed; (2) internasal divided longitudinally; (3) frontonasals paired; (4) frontal long, single, extending up to the middle of the eyes; (5) frontoparietals paired; (6) supraoculars usually two or three; (7) supralabials 4–5 (usually five); (8) infralabials 4–5 (usually four); (9) postmental single; (10) large chin shields in one pair; (11) two longitudinal, parallel paravertebral ridges, separated from each other by 3–8 (usually five) small irregular scales; (12) series of spine-like scales forming oblique lines on lateral surface of body; (13) ventral scales squared, usually smooth (rarely weakly keeled); (14) subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger 13–16; (15) subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe 19–25; (16) femoral pores per hind limb in males usually 7–8; (17) each caudal segment usually without crests, with a more-developed scales or tubercles on the distal region forming transverse rings (coded as ‘: pattern’), but in some cases dorsally with some small scales oblique forming a V shape (coded as ‘<pattern’); laterally without more-developed scales forming longitudinal ridges; (18) subcaudals per caudal segment three (when tail is not regenerated); (19) dorsum brown or dark brown relatively uniform, sometimes with yellowish marks and/or two spots more or less distinguishable at the base of the tail; ventral surface of head and neck mainly light brown, except in the anterior part where there are some transverse dark brown blotches that extend to labial scales; ventral surface of body (including limbs) mainly cream or light brown spotted with dark brown, while that of tail almost completely dark. Colouration in preservative could be darker.

Combination of these characteristics distinguishes Echinosaura palmeri from its congeners. In addition, the distinctiveness of E. palmeri and its sister-species, E. centralis ( Fig. 2), is further corroborated by uncorrected pairwise distances of 17.9% in ND4 and 5.6% in 16S ( Table 1).

Geographic distribution: Echinosaura palmeri occurs in the southern part of Valle del Cauca department in Colombia, through the Pacific and adjacent Cordillera Occidental, to the Darien region in Panama. This is mainly a lowland species ( Uzzell, 1965; Köhler et al., 2004), but its range extends from 2 to c. 1520 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 8; Jaramillo et al., 2010).

Remarks: Echinosaura palmeri occurs in sympatry with E. orcesi in the Anchicayá region in Colombia, near the southern distribution limit of E. palmeri and the northern one of E. orcesi .