Siderolamprinae, Schools & Hedges, 2021

Schools, Molly & Hedges, S. Blair, 2021, Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the Neotropical forest lizards (Squamata, Diploglossidae), Zootaxa 4974 (2), pp. 201-257 : 237-240

Subfamily Siderolamprinae subfam. nov.

Mesoamerican Forest Lizards

Fig. 26

Type genus. Siderolamprus Cope, 1861 .

Diagnosis. Members of this subfamily have (1) claw sheath, present or 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, 11–35, (9) dorsal scale rows, 65–85, (10) relative head width, 9.88–15.6, (11) relative rostral height, 44.7–67.0, (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.

The subfamily Siderolamprinae is distinguished from the other two subfamilies by scales in contact with the nasal scale (six instead of four in Celestinae subfam. nov.), the position of the nostril in the nasal scale (posterior instead of central in Celestinae subfam. nov.), and the number of dorsal scales (65–85 instead of 88–171 in Diploglossinae ).

Content. Fifteen currently recognized species in two genera: Siderolamprus Cope, 1861 and Mesoamericus gen. nov. (15 sp.).

Distribution. This subfamily occurs in Middle America, from southern Mexico to Panama.

Etymology. As for the type genus.

Remarks. The subfamily Siderolamprinae is monophyletic with a Bayesian support value of 96% and a ML support value of 93% ( Fig. 2 ). We have identified two genera that fall into this subfamily based on molecular and morphological evidence, Mesoamericus gen. nov. and Siderolamprus , both represented in our molecular phylogeny. Cope (1861) used Siderolamprus to define Siderolamprus enneagrammus before it became a synonym of Celestus .

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 26. Head scalation of siderolamprine genera, top (left) and side (right) views. (A–B) Mesoamericus bilobatus (SMF 89549). (C–D) Siderolamprus laf (SMF 90177), HW 4.9 mm, HL 7.5 mm.