Neusticurus rudis Boulenger

Myers, C. W. & Donnelly, M. A., 2008, The Summit Herpetofauna Of Auyantepui, Venezuela: Report From The Robert G. Goelet American Museum-Terramar Expedition, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2008 (308), pp. 1-147 : 97-100

Neusticurus rudis Boulenger Figures 58–59

Neusticurus rudis Boulenger, 1900: 53–54 , pl. 5, fig. 1. Holotype BMNH 1946.8 .31.64 from base of Mount Roraima , about 3500 ft, Guyana, collected by F. V. McConnell and J. J. Quelch. Roze, 1958: 251–252 (Auyantepui specimens). Gorzula and Señaris, 1999: 128 (Auyantepui specimen).

MATERIAL: 1.1 km NNE Camp 1, 1650 m: AMNH R-140200–140201, EBRG 2906. Camp 2, 1750 m: AMNH R-140202–140205, EBRG 2907–2909. Camp 3, 1850 m: AMNH R-140206–140208, EBRG 2910–2918. 4 km NE Camp 3, 1430 m: AMNH R-140209– 140210. Camp 4, 1600 m: AMNH R-140211– 140212, EBRG 2919. Camp 5, 2100 m: AMNH R-140213, EBRG 2920. All from the 1994 AMNH –TERRAMAR Expedition to Auyantepui.

COLORATION IN LIFE: A juvenile ( AMNH R-140201, 38 mm SVL) was bicolored, with a brown dorsum and black sides (fig. 58 top); ventral surfaces whitish. Color becomes variable in larger specimens.

One subadult ( EBRG 2906, 61 mm SVL) had a dark greenish brown dorsum; the throat and venter were pale yellow with suffusions of orange-brown beneath neck and orange-brown spotting ventrolaterally, becoming pale greenish beneath limbs and tail.

Another subadult ( AMNH R-140202, 60 mm SVL) had a black-checkered, dark olive-brown dorsum; ventral and ventrolateral surfaces as in specimen above; iris brown around pupil, with dense gray suffusion toward periphery.

An adult female ( AMNH R-140200, 87 mm SVL) was dorsally brown when photographed (fig. 58 bottom), but, at time of preservation, it was dorsally olive, with paler areas and some blackish scales; ventral surfaces pale yellowish; iris olive green turning gray toward periphery. A large male ( AMNH R-140206, 85 mm SVL) was black above with conspicuously yellow-speckled sides.

HEMIPENIS: The hemipenes of AMNH R-140208 (73 mm SVL) were everted in the field. Both organs were later removed, immersed for 1 hr in 3 % KOH solution, and inflated with carmine-dyed petroleum jelly. Attempts to obtain maximum inflation (usually a desirable thing) caused an apparent overinflation and swollen distortion of one lobe of each organ, but all structures are completely everted. The following description and illustration (fig. 59) are based primarily on the left hemipenis, with some interpretation provided by comparison with the right organ; the apparent distortion of the hemipenis. Comblike rows of minute, presumably mineralized spinules are embedded in the tissue folds; there are no other spines. The base of the organ is nude.

the swollen lobe is not illustrated, being replaced by a mirror-image drawing of the opposite lobe.

The everted hemipenis is robust, measuring 5.5 mm long and 4.2 mm across the midsection. The organ is very weakly bilobed, with the lobes strongly inclined to the sulcate side (fig. 59). The nude sulcate faces of the lobes are nearly flattened and are confluent with a pair of pronounced knobs (2 mm long, 1.5 mm wide) extending distally. There are four additional, much smaller protuberances, including a small round knob situated at the sulcate-side base of each large knob and a pair of protuberances in the lobular crotch. The sulcus spermaticus curves mediad from the base of the organ (coming from the left in the left organ [fig. 59], from the right in the right organ); the sulcus then extends centrolineally to bifurcate just beyond the base of the lobular area, with each branch extending between a large knob and the adjacent medial protuberance. The midsection of the hemipenis is nearly encircled by eight angulate tissue ridges that are interrupted by the sulcus spermaticus on one side and a narrow median nude space on the other. On the asulcate side the ridges are chevron-shaped and pointed distally, whereas the chevrons point proximally on the sides of

NATURAL HISTORY

Neusticurus rudis has strong aquatic tendencies and nearly all our 29 specimens were found in rivers and streams, where they would try to escape by swimming under water or by hiding in a crack on the rocky bottom of a stream. They probably are mainly diurnal; a few individuals found in the water at night might have been startled and displaced from streamside places of concealment. One was found by day near Camp 2, in the dark of a sandstone crevice cave with water covering the floor; the lizard was in a crack in the rock wall above the water line; a frog ( Stefania schuberti ) was on the wall of the same cave.

REMARKS

Neusticurus rudis is sympatric with Neusticurus racenisi Roze on the southern slope of Auyantepui at about 1000–1100 m elevation, where W. H. Phelps collected the holotype of N. racenisi and a specimen of N. rudis (AMNH R-61025). However, N. racenisi has not been found on the Auyán summit.27

27 CORRECTION OF TYPE LOCALITY: Roze (1958a: 252) incorrectly gave ‘‘ 400 m. de altura’’ for both the holotype (AMNH R-61008) and the single paratype (AMNH R-61040) of Neusticurus racenisi . The paratype is catalogued as 1509 ft (460 m) and the holotype as 3909 ft (1100 m), which correspond to the 460 m (Urullén) and 1100 m (Guayaraca) camps of the 1937–1938 AMNH–Phelps Venezuelan Expedition. The 460 m camp was the expedition base in an area of savanna and forest. The higher camp was the site of Jimmy Angel’s base camp on savanna bordered by dense forest. The elevation of the latter ‘‘1100 meter’’ or Guayaraca camp was corrected to ‘‘1038 meters’’ in Tate (1938a: 474) and cited as ‘‘nearly 1,000 metres’’ by Dunsterville (1965: 168). Both the 460 m and 1100 m camps are shown on maps in Tate (1938a) and Gilliard (1941a).

The collector, W. H. Phelps, doubtless ranged widely about the camps while hunting birds, and the type locality of N. racenisi may reasonably be corrected to: ‘‘south slope Auyantepui, Guayaraca area, about 1000–1100 m’’.

Myers and Donnelly (1997: 61) suggested that, rather than a highland species of disjunct distribution, Neusticurus racenisi ‘‘may prove to be fairly widespread in southern Venezuela in an elevational range of about 100–1200 m’’ and that it is a ‘‘lowland invader’’ of tepui habitats. Howev- er, there are few records and Gorzula did not take N. racenisi during his extensive collecting in the Venezuelan Guayana (Gorzula and Señaris, 1999: 157). Neusticurus rudis , on the other hand, ‘‘appears to be an upland and highland species in Venezuela’’, although known from lower elevations elsewhere (Gorzula and Señaris, 1999: 128).

FAMILY POLYCHRIDAE

Anolis chrysolepis planiceps Troschel Figures 60–62

Anolis chrysolepis Duméril and Bibron, 1837: 94 . Type locality, Mana, French Guiana, based on MHNP 2436, lectotype designated by Vanzolini and Williams (1970: 85).

Anolis planiceps Troschel, 1848: 649–650 . Type locality, ‘‘Caracas’’ (erroneously given as ‘‘British Guiana’’ by Peters and Donoso-Barros, 1970: 51).

Anolis nitens: Roze, 1958a: 246 (Auyantepui) . McDiarmid and Donnelly, 2005: 505, 515 (Guayana highlands).

Anolis eewi Roze, 1958b: 311–312 . Holotype FMNH 74040 , from Cumbre de Torono Tepui , Chimantá Tepui, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela, collected February 28, 1955, by J. A. Steyermark and J. Wurdack. Gorzula and Señaris, 1999: 145, color photos 93, 94 (name resurrected for Venezuelan upland and highland localities).

Anolis chrysolepis planiceps: Vanzolini and Williams, 1970: 83–86 . Donnelly and Myers, 1991: 23–24 (Cerro Guaiquinima). Myers and Donnelly, 1997: 58–60 (Cerro Tamacuari).

Anolis chrysolepis eewi: Gorzula, 1992: 275 .

Anolis nitens nitens: Gorzula and Señaris, 1999: 145–146 (Venezuelan lowland localities).

MATERIAL: Camp 1, 1700 m: AMNH R-140214–140217, EBRG 2902–2903. Camp 2, 1750 m: EBRG 2904. From the 1994 AMNH –TERRAMAR Expedition to Auyantepui. ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Auyantepui plateau, 2200 m (7218 ft.): AMNH R- 61013, from the 1937–1938 AMNH –Phelps Venezuelan Expedition.

COLORATION: Dorsal color and pattern variable in life, but pattern usually including

a dark brown interorbital bar, pale diagonal line on shank, and a pair of brown sacral markings. Two juvenile females had tan middorsal stripes on brown (fig. 60 middle) or greenish gray dorsa; another juvenile was frosted gray over a complex darker pattern (fig. 60 top). Adults were gray or slightly greenish gray with indefinite darker gray markings, especially on the flanks (fig. 60 bottom). Ventral surfaces dirty white, grayish white, or chin white with venter pale yellow. Pale labial stripe and stripe through ear pure white, grayish white, or pale greenish gray (this marking tending to become obscure in preservative).

Dewlap of two males orange, with white or grayish white scales in basal rows, scales darker gray or blackish gray in distal rows. One adult female with a smaller but similarly colored dewlap. The small juvenile dewlaps seemed more variable based on four specimens from Camp 1: One juvenile (8) had a red dewlap with yellow scales basally and dark gray scales peripherally; two others had either a red (8) or orange (♀) dewlap with a mixture of pale and dark scales; a fourth juvenile (♀) had a large bluish black basal spot on the dewlap, which had a bright orange periphery and mostly white scales (only a few dark scales).

Iris of adults dark bronze heavily suffused with black and with a pale blue pupillary ring; iris of two juveniles appeared dark brown with a bluish white area above the pupil. Tongue pale yellowish or orangish; mouth lining pale grayish, throat lining not pigmented.

NATURAL HISTORY: Six of our seven specimens were collected in the forest (fig. 4 bottom) near Camp 1; one was sleeping on a leaf 1 m aboveground at night and the others were on the forest floor by day. An additional specimen was found by day in a patch of forest near Camp 2.