Ophiodes Wagler, 1828

Schools, Molly & Hedges, S. Blair, 2021, Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the Neotropical forest lizards (Squamata, Diploglossidae), Zootaxa 4974 (2), pp. 201-257 : 237

Genus Ophiodes Wagler, 1828

South American Glass Lizards

Figs. 24–25

Ophiodes Wagler, 1828:740 . Type species. Pygopus striatus, Spix, 1824:25 .

Diagnosis. Species of Ophiodes have (1) claw sheath, absent, (2) contact between the nasal and rostral scales, present, (3) scales in contact with the nasal scale, five, (4) postnasal scales, one, (5) position of the nostril in the nasal scale, posterior, (6) keels on dorsal body scales, absent, (7) digits per limb, none, (8) longest toe lamellae, none, (9) dorsal scale rows, 130–171, (10) relative head width, n/a, (11) relative rostral height, n/a,(12) relative frontonasal length, n/a, (13) relative interparietal distance, n/a, (14) relative axilla-groin distance, n/a.

From Diploglossus , we distinguish Ophiodes by the lack of limbs (versus limbs present in Diploglossus ), and the number of dorsal scales (130–171 versus 88–99).

Content. Six species ( Table 3 ): Ophiodes enso , O. fragilis , O. intermedius , O. luciae , O. striatus , and O. vertebralis .

Distribution. Ophiodes occurs in southern South America ( Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) ( Fig. 25 ).

Etymology. The Greek stem (ophio -) means “snake” and Latin suffix (- odes) means “likeness,” hence “like a snake.”

Remarks. Ophiodes is a monophyletic clade with a Bayesian support value of 100% and a ML bootstrap value of 77% ( Fig. 2 ). Cacciali & Scott (2015) provided a key to most of the species of Ophiodes and indicated the presence of several undescribed species.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Phylogenetic tree of diploglossid lizards based on sequences of nine genes: four mitochondrial genes (CytB, ND2, 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA) and five nuclear genes (AMEL, BDNF, PLPR, RAG1, and ZFP36). Maximum likelihood tree obtained from the nine-gene dataset (59 individuals; 6,949 sites).A scale bar indicates 5% sequence divergence. The numbers at nodes are ML bootstrap values, followed by Bayesian posterior probabilities; asterisks indicate significant (≥ 95%) support, and a dash or zero value indicates weak (<50%) support. The tree is rooted with Pseudopus apodus (Anguidae).

FIGURE 24. In life images of (A) Ophiodes intermedius (photograph by Paul Freed), (B) Ophiodes striatus (photograph by Santiago Carreira), and (C) Ophiodes vertebralis (photograph by Santiago Carreira).

FIGURE 25. The distribution of Ophiodes in South America.