A new species of the genus Gonatodes (Squamata: Sauria: Sphaerodactylidae) from the western flank of the Cordillera Oriental in Colombia, with description of its hemipenial morphology

Abstract

We describe a new sphaerodactylid lizard of the genus Gonatodes from the western flank of the Cordillera Oriental, Santander Department, Colombia based on morphological and molecular data. The new species is distinguished from all congeners by having a medium body size, by the absence of both a supraciliary spine and of clusters of distinctly enlarged conical scales on the sides and by having a subcaudal scale pattern (1’1”) and a cryptic dorsal color pattern in both sexes. Additionally, we describe for the first time the hemipenial morphology for a species of the genus. The new species increases the number of Gonatodes known from Colombia to eight and is the only known species of the country, as well as the second known mainland species of the genus not exhibiting sexual dichromatism.

New distributional records for <i>Gonatodes albogularis</i> (Squamata: Sphaerodactylidae) from eastern Colombia

“…The specimens were taxonomically identified by external characteristics, such as: eyelids absent; round pupil, antehumeral white bar (vs. a conspicuous white suprahumeral bar or spot with black margins within the G. concinnatus complex); lamellae under digits not flattened, and not wider than the digits (vs. subdigital scales flattened, often wider than the tip of the toe in G. humeralis); and the coloration pattern of males, which is characteristic for most of the species in the genus Gonatodes (Peters & Donoso-Barros, 1970;Avila-Pires, 1995;Savage, 2002;Sturaro & Avila-Pires , 2011), except in G. lichenosus and G. chucuri, which do not have sexual dichromatism (Rojas-Runjaic et al, 2010;Meneses-Pelayo & Ramírez, 2020).…”

“…The genus Gonatodes contains 33 species (Uetz et al, 2019;Meneses-Pelayo & Ramírez, 2020;Rivero-Blanco & Schargel, 2020) of which only five have been reported to Colombia: Gonatodes albogularis, Gonatodes chucuri, G. humeralis, G. riveroi, and G. vittatus (Ayala, 1986;Sturaro & Avila Pires, 2011;Meneses-Pelayo & Ramírez, 2020). Gonatodes albogularis is a small lizard with a wide distribution.…”