Taxonomic Studies of the GenusPhymaturus(Iguania: Liolaemidae): Description of Four New Species

Abstract

after the study of a diverse collection of Phymaturus from three argentinian institutions and additional samples collected in the last two years we discovered several populations of uncertain taxonomic status. Based on 93 morphological characters of squamation, color pattern, gular and nuchal folds, precloacal pores, and morphometric data, we conclude that at least four of those are independent lineages which require formal description. characters related to sexual dimorphism and dichromatism as well as the ontogenetic change of several others, from juvenile to adult specimens, are described. according to the most recent revision of the genus (Lobo and Quinteros, 2005a) and considering the descriptions made in the last four years, the taxonomic composition of the genus was raised to 23 species. in this study we provide the formal description of four additional new taxa, including their diagnosis and detailed comparisons with other members of their species groups. Two new species belong to the patagonicus group (provinces of chubut and rio negro, in patagonia between 46° and 41° of latitude) while the other two belong to the palluma group (neuquén and catamarca provinces, western argentina, 39° and 27-26°30' of latitude respectively). with the exception of one case for which four localities are reported, all new species are restricted to their type localities. This fact confirms a common historical distributional pattern for most species of the genus.

Checklist of lizards and amphisbaenians of Argentina: an update

“…This could be an artifact of our present knowledge, since the species diversity of Brazil is still high, but it seems that the tendency in Argentina will follow that of previous years, and more species are being discovered with more intense field sampling and detailed systematic studies. On the other side, some species have been suggested as synonyms of other species, like Phymaturus agilis, P. gynechlomus, and P. dorsimaculatus , Lobo et al 2010a, Lobo et al 2012a, and probably some species of Liolaemus can also be synonimized. The high number of lizard's species in Argentina is mainly attributed to the high number of species of the Liolaemus and Phymaturus genera.…”

“…(Bell, 1843). Scolaro (2010) recently redescribed the neotype of Phymaturus palluma, suggesting the "UspallataParamillos" site as type locality and rejected the proposed synonym of P. gynechlomus with P. palluma by Lobo et al (2010a).…”

A new species of Phymaturus of the P. mallimaccii Group from the Andes of central Chile (Iguania: Liolaemidae)

“…The characters for description were taken from Etheridge (1995), Lobo and Quinteros (2005), and Lobo et al (2010Lobo et al ( , 2012a. The description of colors in life is based on photographs of recently collected specimens.…”

“…Etheridge (1995) subdivided Phymaturus into two groups-palluma and patagonicus. Based on the results of a phylogenetic analysis of morphological, skeletal and cytogenetic characters of Phymaturus, Lobo and Quinteros (2005) reported that the northern species of the P. palluma Group (that occur in northwestern San Juan, approximately north of 30 o 20' S), represent a monophyletic subgroup, which was named the Puna Clade (Lobo et al 2010). This…”

“…The males of members of this clade bear a "sprayed" dorsal pattern composed of small spots and lacking dorsal reticulation (Lobo et al 2010(Lobo et al , 2012a. To date, this clade contains 11 species: Phymaturus bibronii Guichenot, (1848); P. mallimaccii Cei, 1980;P.…”