Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845

Koch, Claudia, Venegas, Pablo J., Garcia-Bravo, Antonio & Boehme, Wolfgang, 2011, A new bush anole (Iguanidae, Polychrotinae, Polychrus) from the upper Maranon basin, Peru, with a redescription of Polychrus peruvianus (Noble, 1924) and additional information on Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845, ZooKeys 141, pp. 79-107 : 92-95

Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845

Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, Nachrichten von der Georg-Augusts Universität und der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 3: 38. - Terra typica: Popayán, western Colombia. - 1845

Polychrus gutturosus - Berthold, Nachrichten von der Georg-Augusts Universität und der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 8-10: 11. - 1846

Polychrus (Chaunolaemus) multicarinatus Peters, Monatsberichte der königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1869 (11): 768. - Terra typica: Costa Rica. - 1869

Polychrus gutturosus - Boulenger, Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum, 2: 100. - 1885

Polychrus spurrelli Boulenger, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1914: 814. - Terra typica: near Peña Lisa, Condoto, Colombia. - 1914

Polychrus gutturosus - Burt and Burt, Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 28: 40. - 1933

Polychrus gutturosus gutturosus - Parker, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 105 (3): 516. - 1935

Polychrus gutturosus spurrelli - Parker, Proceedings of the Zoological S ociety o f London, 105 (3): 516. - 1935

Polychrus gutturosus - Etheridge, Herpetologica, 21: 167. - 1965

Polychrus gutturosus - Peters and Donoso-Barros, Smithsonian I nstitution Press, Washington D.C. & London: 233. - 1970

Polychrus gutturosus spurrelli - Peters and Dono so-Barros, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. & London: 234. - 1970

Polychroides gutturosus - Peters and Donoso-Barros, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. & London: 233. - 1986

Polychrus gutturosus spurrelli - Peters and Donoso-Barros, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. & London: 234. - 1986

Polychrus gutturosus - Roberts, Herpetological Review, 28 (4): 184. - 1997

Polychrus gutturosus - Köhler, Herpeton Verlag, Offenbach: 83. - 2000

Polychrus spurrellii - Torres-Carvajal, Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service, 131: 21. - 2001

Polychrus gutturosus - Savage, University of Chicago Press, 2 nd edition: 445. - 2002

Polychrus gutturosus - Köhler, Herpeton Verlag, Offenbach: 13 7. - 2003

Polychrus spurrelli - Yánez-Muñoz et al., Check List, 2 (2): 63. - 2006

Diagnosis

(Tab. 3). (1) A Polychrus with a maximum known SVL of 170 mm; (2) dorsal and gular crest absent; (3) 63 to 82 scales around midbody; (4) 75 to 105 scales in middorsal row from behind the occipital scales to the level of the posterior edge of the thigh; (5) femoral pores 9 to 21 on one side (Fig. 6E); (6) lamellae on finger IV 25-36; (7) lamellae on toe IV 35-45 (Fig. 6D); (8) tail 2.36-3.55 times longer than SVL; (9) dorsal scales smooth or with 1-3 keels; (10) ventral scales with 1-5 keels; (11) gular scales oval, mostly striated, much larger than ventrals, those on gular fan widely separated by granular skin (Fig. 6C); (12) a sexual dichromatism present.

Description

. For detailed descriptions of shape, structure and arrangement of the scales see Taylor (1956) and Savage (2002).Our examined female specimens (n=15) had a maximum SVL of 152 mm, a maximum tail length of 539 mm, a maximum total length of 691 mm, a maximum head length of 33.3 mm and a maximum head width of 26.4 mm. The male specimens (n=10) had a maximum SVL of 122 mm, a maximum tail length of 429 mm, a maximum total length of 549.8 mm, a maximum head length of 28.1 mm and a maximum head width of 22.2 mm. Rostral bordered posteriorly by normally 4 striated scales (3 in one specimen: ZFMK 40832; 5 in another specimen: MHNG 2531.062). Scales on snout heterogeneous in size, irregularly polygonal, juxtaposed, rugose and striated; 1-6 scales across snout between second canthals. 2-3 striated canthals between nasal and supraciliaries. Supraorbital semicircle distinct (Fig. 6A), with 7-13 scales, separated medially by normally one scale (0 in two specimens: BM 1901.3.29.19, MHNG 2531.062; 2 in another specimen: ZFMK 19047). Supraciliaries 7-11, juxtaposed, striated; in a continuous series with canthals. Supraocularies 12-18. Internasals 3-5.Supralabials 4-8, strongly striated with 2-6 keels; followed to commissure of mouth by 2-4 slightly smaller scales. Infralabials 4-6, strongly striated with 3-8 keels; followed to commissure by 1-4 distinctly smaller scales (Fig. 6B). Mental approximately half divided by a median groove in 17 specimens, almost divided in 5 specimens, medially divided in one specimen and divided into numerous small scales in one specimen. Postmentals striated (Fig. 6C), normally 2 (5 in one specimen: ZFMK 25729). Supratemporals 4-5; scales in temporal region striated.

Paravertebral scales mostly keeled, only some are smooth; lateral body scales smooth or with 1-3 keels, fore- and hindlimbs dorsally with one or more keels, ventrally multicarinate. Ventral body scales with 1-5 keels.

Other morphological characters of the 27 examined individuals are summarized in Table 3.

Descriptions of the colouration in life (Fig. 7A, B) are given by Breder (1946), Köhler (2003b), Ortleb and Heatwole (1965) and Savage (2002) and a description of the colour in preservative is provided by Taylor (1956).

Distribution and natural history.

From northwestern Honduras and western Costa Rica to northwestern Ecuador ( Köhler 2003a, Savage 2002) from sea level to 1300 m elevation ( Castro-Herrera and Vargas-Salinas 2008). According to Duellman (1979), the species occurs on the Pacific slopes of the Cordillera Occidental in Colombia and Ecuador, the northern parts of the Colombian cordilleras and in the high lands in lower Central America. According to Peters (1967) and( Peters and Donoso-Barros (1970, 1986), Polychrus gutturosus gutturosus is distributed from the higher western Andean slopes of Ecuador and Colombia and northward to Costa Rica and Nicaragua; whereas Polychrus gutturosus spurrelli occurs in lowland rain forests of northwestern Ecuador and Colombia. According to Savage (2002), the species occurs in undisturbed lowland moist and wet forests and marginally along stream courses which lead into the adjacent Premontane Moist Forest.

Despite its restriction to humid forests, it is strictly diurnal and arboreal and is rarely seen ( Savage 2002). A female specimen from Turrialba, Cartago Province, Costa Rica examined by Taylor (1956) contained 4 ovarian eggs in the right and 5 in the left ovary, respectively. Eggs were nearly spherical and measured 12 mm in diameter. Roberts (1997) observed a pair of Polychrus gutturosus copulating in a tree 2 m above the ground at La Selva Biological Station, Heredia Province, Costa Rica on 9 May and further reports of a gravid female, that was found in a Heliocarpus sp. tree next to Puerto Viejo river at La Selva on 24 July. According to Savage (2002), juveniles have a SVL of 53.5-57 mm when hatching. We examined 2 juveniles with a SVL of 87 mm (ZFMK 31444) and only 44 mm (QCAZ 06749), respectively. Two specimens which were not examined any further had a SVL of 39 mm (BM 94.5.29.5) and 57 mm (BM 1901.3.29.84), respectively. Based on the so far reported cases of copulating animals and gravid females, Savage (2002) suggested a rainy season productive period (May to December). He stated that eggs are apparently laid in the leaf litter on the ground. Köhler (2003B) kept a couple of Polychrus gutturosus from near Rio San Juan, Nicaragua, in a terrarium. On 26 October the female laid 5 eggs, which decayed and could not be incubated successfully. We examined a gravid female (ZFMK 40830) from Comatré, Limón, Costa Rica, which was collected in October 1983. It contained a total of 6 oval eggs of which 3 were positioned in each of the oviducts. On the average, these eggs had a length of 21 mm and a width of 15 mm.