Identity, Habitat, and Relative Abundance of a Population of Teiid Lizards of the Genus Cnemidophorus in Caribbean Coastal Guna Yala Indigenous Region, Panama

摘要

The traditional taxonomic treatment of the gonochoristic populations in the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus complex (Squamata: Teiidae) as representatives of a single species distributed in mainland Central America and certain Caribbean islands (sensu Burt 1931; Echternacht 1968; Montgomery et al. 2007, 2011) has obscured the existence of several distinct species (McCranie and Hedges 2013). Using limited genetic, and mostly morphological criteria, McCranie and Hedges (2013) allocated specimens in the complex from Belize (apparently introduced), Guatemala, Honduras and certain of its islands (e.g., Cayo Cochino Pequeno, Roatan, and útila), and extreme northeastern Nicaragua to C. ruatanus (name resurrected from synonymy in a new combination), those from Darién Province, Panama, to C. duellmani (newly described), and those from the Colombian islands Providencia and San Andres in the Caribbean Sea to C. espeuti (name resurrected from synonymy in the original combination). Prior to the report of McCranie and Hedges (2013), JMW had examined mainland and insular samples of lizards from Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama and found no instances of sympatry between populations, which they subsequently described as the allopatric species C. ruatanus and C. duellmani. All specimens examined from several museum collections generally conformed to critical parts of the diagnoses of either C. ruatanus (eight rows of ventral scales and a distinct longitudinal stripe configuration in the vertebral field) or C. duellmani (10 rows of ventral scales and presence of a hazy longitudinal configuration in the vertebral field of adults).