Acratosaura mentalis (Amaral, 1933)

Uchoa, Lucas Rafael, Delfim, Fagner Ribeiro, Mesquita, Daniel Oliveira, Colli, Guarino Rinaldi, Garda, Adrian Antonio & Guedes, Thais B., 2022, Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata) from the Caatinga, northeastern Brazil: Detailed and updated overview, Vertebrate Zoology 72, pp. 599-659 : 599

Acratosaura mentalis (Amaral, 1933)

Figs 4.1 and 14

Type locality.

Villa Nova, municipality of Senhor do Bonfim, state of Bahia, Brazil.

Distribution.

Caatinga endemic species. It is registered in the states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe. It is widespread in the Caatinga and occur along six ecoregions (Table 1 ; Appendix S3). It occurs in low to high elevation areas (122-1,085 m a.s.l.), with annual mean temperature 20 to 26°C, and average annual rainfall between 412 and 1,042 mm.

Ecological notes.

Fossorial and diurnal ( Rodrigues 2003). It is associated with area with shrub vegetation on a sandy soil along the Caatinga ( Brito et al. 2012). It is also known to occur in semi-arid Caatinga areas with arboreal vegetation and disturbed areas (FRD pers. obs.). Specimens have already been collected buried in the litter between the rocky extrusions and under a piece of trunk ( Delfim and Freire 2007). Diet based mainly on arthropods, being Scorpionida, Orthoptera , and insect larvae the most representative items ( Costa 2015). Oviparous, no detailed data is known about the number of eggs laid by the species, but it could be similar to other species of the Iphisiini tribe ( Mesquita and Colli 2010).

Figures

Figure 4. Lizards recorded in the Caatinga region. 4.1 Acratosaura mentalis; 4.2 Acratosaura spinosa; 4.3 Anotosaura collaris; 4.4 Anotosaura vanzolinia; 4.5 Calyptommatus confusionibus; 4.6 Calyptommatus frontalis; 4.7 Calyptommatus leiolepis; and 4.8 Calyptommatus nicterus. Photograph credits: Marco A. Freitas (4.2, 4.7, 4.8), Miguel T. Rodrigues (4.6), Mauro Teixeira (4.3), Adrian Garda (4.1, 4.4, 4.5).