A New Semi-Aquatic Lizard from Peru

An adult male Potamites montanicola. G. Chavez & D. Vasques
There are relatively few aquatic or semi-aquatic lizards. The marine iguana feeds underwater and the common iguana uses water to escape predators, as do a few Anolis; some monitor lizards regularly use aquatic habitats; a few teiids also use aquatic habitats for escape (Kentropyx) and the caiman lizards of the genus Dracaena feed in the water. But, some microteiids in the genera Rimia, Neusticurus and Poyamites are also semi-aquatic.

Now, Germán Chávez and Diego Vásquez of the Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI) in Lima, Peru have described an unusual, new semi-aquatic microteiid (family Gymnophtalmidae). The new species, Potamites montanicola, is six to seven cm in body length, with a tail measuring about 10 cm, and has strongly keeled scales over its dorsum.

Members of the genus Potamites (six species) were placed in the genus Neusticurus (five species) until they were separated in 2005 by Doan and Castoe. Two species of Potamites are known from Peru: Potamites ecpleopus and Potamites strangulatus, both of which contain several subspecies. Surveys in 2010 produced a new species of Potamites from southern Peru. The following has been adapted from the original article and an article from Sci-News.com.

“The first specimen of P. montanicola was discovered in Cajadela Native community by Karla García, a member of our team, in August 2010,” said Dr. Chávez in the interview with Sci-News.com. “This only specimen was found when the surveys was ending. One morning, when Karla García was walking back to the camp, this lizard was crossing a trail very close to a creek in a secondary forest.”

The new species is known only from two localities in the Andes of southern Peru,separated by 64 km and located at the Cordillera de Vilcabamba and Apurimac river valley.

“According to our field data, this species is very restricted to streams with fresh temperatures of 14 to 16 Celsius degrees,” Dr. Chávez explained. “The most of the specimens were observed at night, thus we believe that this species is nocturnal (active at night), but we can’t confirm this. We also found some individuals at day (some recently collected specimens). They were always spotted under rocks, probably with lower activity than at night when we found the specimens running or swimming.”

“The males have great colors on the vental region of the body. They can be light blue, electric blue with black spots or yellow with black spots, while the ventral region in females can be creamy white or light red. Males are longer than females. Although we have no records or proofs that P. montanicola is a part of the diet of some snakes, it is probably that this lizard is prey for snakes such as Bothriopsis taeniata, Chironius monticola and even juveniles of Lachesis muta, recorded in the same location.”

The species name is derived from the Spanish ‘montano’, an adjective to describe something from a mountain, and the Latin suffix ‘-icola’ for ‘inhabitant’ and refers to the montane forests where P. montanicola lives.

“This species is the first Potamites recorded in mountain forests at elevation above 2,000 m, that give us an idea about an unknown diversity of Andean Potamites,” Dr. Chávez concluded. “Over the last years, many species of amphibians have been described from Peru, but very few reptiles. Thus, it is another proof of the reptiles richness in our country.”

The article is available on-line.

Chavez G, Vasquez D. 2012. A new species of Andean semiaquatic lizard of the genus Potamites (Sauria, Gymnophtalmidae) from southern Peru. ZooKeys 168:31-43.

Doan TM, Castoe TA. 2005. Phylogenetic taxonomy of the Cercosaurini (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae), with new genera for species of Neusticurus and Proctoporus. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143: 405-416. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00145.x

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