Echinosaura orcesi, FRITTS ET AL., 2002

ECHINOSAURA ORCESI FRITTS ET AL., 2002 View in CoL

( FIGS 6E, 10D)

Echinosaua orcesi Fritts et al., 2002: 349–355 (original description). Holotype: Male ( AMNH 109822 About AMNH ) from ‘ Colombia: Valle [Valle del Cauca]: approximately 13 km west of Dagua, Rio Anchicaya drainage, 820 m’.

Diagnosis: The following data are based on nine examined specimens (referred material listed in Supporting Information, Appendix SII) and the original description. Echinosaura orcesi possesses the following characteristics: (1) snout pointed, long; (2) internasal single; (3) frontonasals paired; (4) frontal long, single; (5) frontoparietals paired; (6) supraoculars large, usually two or three; (7) supralabials 3–5 (usually three); (8) infralabials 2–3 (usually three); (9) postmental single; (10) large chin shields in one pair; (11) dorsally two discontinuous sinuous or S-shaped ridges formed by spine-like scales; (12) alternate tubercular scales on lateral surface of body; (13) ventral scales smooth, squared (or are rounded squares); (14) subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger 20–22; (15) subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe 30–36; (16) femoral pores per hind limb in males usually 9–16; (17) each caudal segment without crests, with a pair of more-developed scales or tubercles on the distal region forming transverse rings (coded as ‘: pattern’); (18) subcaudals per caudal segment five or six (when tail is not regenerated); (19) dorsum brown with transverse alternate darker bands, and with lateral ocelli more or less visible; ventral surface of head and neck cream or clear brown, except on the anterior part where there are some transverse dark brown blotches that extend to labial scales; ventral surface of body (including limbs and tail) mainly cream or reddish light brown spotted with dark (in some cases dark spotted with cream). Colouration in preservative darker.

Combination of these characteristics distinguishes E. orcesi from its congeners. In addition, the distinctiveness of E. orcesi and its congeners is corroborated by a minimal uncorrected pairwise distances of 17.4% in ND4 and 7.4% in 16S ( Table 1).

Geographic distribution: Echinosaura orcesi occurs on the western versant of the Cordillera Occidental and in the Pacific region of Colombia, from Anchicayá region in Valle del Cauca department to north-western Ecuador in Esmeraldas and Carchi provinces. Its elevational range extends from 50 to c. 866 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 8) .

Remarks: Echinosura orcesi occurs in sympatry with E. palmeri on the Anchicayá drainage in the Valle del Cauca department, south-western Colombia. In Ecuador, near the border with Colombia in Esmeraldas and Carchi provinces, E. orcesi overlaps in its distribution range with E. horrida and E. keyi . Köhler et al. (2004) also reported that these three species occur sympatrically in Paramba, Imbabura province.