Genus Siderolamprus Cope, 1861

Middle American Forest Lizards

Fig. 28

Siderolamprus Cope, 1861:368 . Type species. Siderolamprus enneagrammus Cope, 1861:368, by original designation. Oneyda Gray, 1845:118 . Type species: Diploglossus owenii Duméril & Bibron, 1839:594, by original designation.

Diagnosis. Species of Siderolamprus have (1) claw sheath, absent, (2) contact between the nasal and rostral scales, present or absent, (3) scales in contact with the nasal scale, six, (4) postnasal scales, two, (5) position of the nostril in the nasal scale, posterior, (6) keels on dorsal body scales, present or absent, (7) digits per limb, five, (8) longest toe lamellae, 14–35, (9) dorsal scale rows, 65–85, (10) relative head width, 9.88–15.6, (11) relative rostral height, 44.7–63.9, (12) relative frontonasal length, 2.46–2.88, (13) relative interparietal distance, 0.561–1.14, (14) relative axilla-groin distance, 53.5–65.3. From Mesoamericus gen. nov., we distinguish Siderolamprus by the claw sheath (absent versus present in Mesoamericus) and relative rostral height (44.7–63.9 versus 65.0–67.0).

Content. Fourteen species (Table 3): Siderolamprus adercus, S. atitlanensis, S. bivittatus, S. cyanochloris, S. enneagrammus, S. hylaius, S. ingridae, S. laf, S. legnotus, S. montanus, S. orobius, S. owenii, S. rozellae, S. scansorius .

Distribution. Siderolamprus occurs in Middle America, from southern Mexico to Panama (Fig. 28). The map does not include the distribution of Siderolamprus owenii because its distribution is unknown.

Etymology. The generic name is from the Greek sideros (iron) and lampros (bright, radiant), apparently in allusion to “glossy black” color of the type species, noted in the original description (Cope 1861).

Remarks. Siderolamprus is a monophyletic clade with a support value of 100% in Bayesian and ML analyses (Fig. 2). Our phylogenetic tree includes five of the 14 species of Siderolamprus ( S. bivittatus, S. cyanochloris, S. enneagrammus, S. laf, and S. rozellae). The high levels of divergence (with some splits as old as 8 Mya) within the species Siderolamprus enneagrammus (Fig. 3) suggest that it is a complex that includes at least one undefined species.