Echinosaura brachycephala, KOHLER ET AL., 2004

Vásquez-Restrepo, Juan D., Ibáñez, Roberto, Sánchez-Pacheco, Santiago J. & Daza, Juan M., 2020, Phylogeny, taxonomy and distribution of the Neotropical lizard genus Echinosaura (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae), with the recognition of two new genera in Cercosaurinae, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 189, pp. 287-314 : 303

ECHINOSAURA BRACHYCEPHALA KÖHLER ET AL., 2004

( FIGS 6A, 10A)

Echinosaura brachycephala Köhler et al., 2004: 52–60 (original description). Holotype: Male ( MHNG 2359.77 ) from ‘ Las Pampas (=San Francisco de las Pampas, 0° 25’ 60’ S, 78° 25’ 00’ W, 1275 m elevation), Provincia Cotopaxi, Ecuador’ .

Diagnosis: The following data are based on the original description and high-quality photographs of specimens deposited at QCAZ (Museo de Zoología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador; photographs are available online through www. bioweb.bio). Echinosaura brachycephala possesses the following characteristics: (1) snout relatively short and rounded; (2) internasal single; (3) frontonasals paired [rarely with 1–4 small irregular scales between the frontonasals and the frontal (‘prefrontals’)]; (4) frontal single (rarely divided); (5) frontoparietals paired; (6) supraoculars three (third supraocular smaller than first and second); (7) supralabials 3–5 (usually four); (8) infralabials three; (9) postmental reduced or absent; (10) chin shields not differentiated; (11) two paravertebral rows of tubercles or spine-like scales, slightly undulating, separated from each other by 4–6 small, irregular scales; (12) tubercular scales forming oblique lines on lateral surface of body; (13) ventral scales keeled, squared (or are rounded squares); (14) subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger 16–23; (15) subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe 23–32; (16) femoral pores per hind limb in males 7–9, in females 1–2; (17) dorsal and lateral surface of tail with small tubercles scattered along each caudal segment (coded as ‘<pattern’); (18) subcaudals per caudal segment four (when tail is not regenerated); (19) dorsum brown or dark brown, relatively uniform, with some clear spots more or less visible; ventral surface of head and neck light brown with several scales bearing white spots, except on the edges near the mouth where there is a darker ground colour with some transverse cream blotches which extend to labial scales; ventral surface of body (including limbs and tail) mainly light brown spotted with dark brown and cream.

Combination of these characteristics distinguishes Echinosaura brachycephala from its congeners. In addition, the distinctiveness of E. brachycephala and its sister-species, E. horrida ( Fig. 2), is further corroborated by uncorrected pairwise distances of 18.8% in ND4 and 6.5% in 16S ( Table 1).

Geographic distribution: Echinosaura brachycephala is endemic to Ecuador. It occurs in the west versant of the Andes in Pichincha and Cotopaxi provinces at elevations between 690 and 1915 m a.s.l. ( Fig. 8) .

Remarks: Most paratypes (42 specimens) were collected at the type locality (paratopotypes), whereas the remaining eight paratypes are from Tandapi, Pichincha province, Ecuador ( Köhler et al., 2004). Although the distributions of Echinosaura brachycephala and E. horrida partially overlap, E. brachycephala seems to be more common above 1200 m a.s.l.