Central American Whiptail

biology_ecology

Habitat. Cnemidophorus ruatanus occurs at low elevations (sea level to 400 m elevation) in the Lowland Moist Forest and Lowland Dry Forest formations of Holdridge (1967). This is a sun loving species that occurs in open areas, such as beach vegetation and along open, gravely or sandy riverbanks. Both sexes exhibit the habit of pausing while moving about to lift and shake one of its forelegs. It has been collected or seen active during every month of the year in Honduras. Montgomery et al. (2007, 2011) provided studies on the habitats and natural history of a population of C. ruatanus on Cayo Cochino Pequeño, Honduras.

A review of the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus group in Central America (Squamata: Teiidae), with comments on other species in the group

description

Description. The following is based on 21 males (FMNH 283560 – 61, 283563 – 64, 283568; KU 192621, 203160, 220101; USNM 563589 – 90, 563593 – 94, 563596, 563598 – 99, 570397, 570399, 570401, 573206, 573209, 580929) and 14 females (FMNH 283562, 283566; KU 101334, 101340, 192622; USNM 563588, 563592, 563595, 563597, 573207 – 08, 573211 – 12, 580928). Cnemidophorus ruatanus is a moderately large lizard (maximum recorded SVL 113 mm [FMNH 283561]); dorsal head scales enlarged, smooth, platelike, with paired prenasal scales with short median sutures, a single frontonasal, paired prefrontals, a single frontal, paired frontoparietals, two pairs of parietal scales (occasionally one or two parietals can be partially divided), and a single interparietal scale; rostral not contacting frontonasal; postnasal not contacting prefrontal; prefrontal and first superciliary usually in contact; frontal ridge absent; posterior frontal suture usually aligned near midlength of supraocular 3; scales in frontoparietal region smooth, flat; interparietal varies from slightly narrower than, to slightly broader than, flanking parietals; 1 – 6 (2.8 ± 1.1) scales between fourth supraocular and inner-most parietal

A review of the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus group in Central America (Squamata: Teiidae), with comments on other species in the group

diagnosis

Diagnosis. Cnemidophorus ruatanus can be distinguished from other northern populations of the C. lemniscatus species group as follows: from C. l. espeuti of Islas de Providencia and San Andrés, Colombia, by having a single and distinct vertebral stripe, 27 – 32 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe, and 14 – 17 subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger (versus vertebral stripe split, 33 – 35 subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe, and 17 – 19 subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger in C. l. espeuti); from C. l. gaigei in having 11 – 13 in 31, 10 in 5, or 9 in 19 scales surrounding the three enlarged precloacal plates, and in those having only 9 scales the precloacal pair are completely separated by a single scale (Fig. 5 A) in 15 or separated by distance of one-third to over one-half in 4 (versus 9 – 10 scales surrounding the three enlarged precloacal plates in all eight examined and the precloacal pair in broad contact, without a smaller interscale in 6 (Fig. 5 B) and a small interscale not separating precloacal pair by more than one-third in 2 in C. l. gaigei [see Discussion below]). Burt (1931) synonymized C. ruatanus with C. l. lemniscatus, but the latter differs most notably fr

A review of the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus group in Central America (Squamata: Teiidae), with comments on other species in the group

discussion

Echternacht (1968) compared a series of Cnemidophorus ruatanus from the Honduran mainland to a series of Cnemidophorus lemniscatus group specimens from El Real, Panama. Echternacht (1968) noted that the El Real specimens frequently had ten ventral plates across the venter at the level of the fifteenth ventral plate. Examination of a series of 15 of the El Real population revealed that all 15 have ten transverse (across the venter) ventrals at the level of the fifteenth ventral or at one or two ventral rows posterior to that point. The Panamanian C. lemniscatus group populations are also the only populations of the genus Cnemidophorus (sensu Harvey et al. 2012) known from the Pacific versant. We herein describe the Panamanian population as a new species of Cnemidophorus.

A review of the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus group in Central America (Squamata: Teiidae), with comments on other species in the group