Filling the gaps in a highly diverse Neotropical lizard lineage: a new and endemic genus of Cercosaurinae (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) with the description of two new species from the Northern Andes of Colombia

LUISA, RENDÓN UBIEL, AMÉZQUITA ADOLFO. A new species of Pristimantis (Anura: Strabomantidae) with a colourful venter from the cloud forests of Colombian western Andes

The Terrarana frogs of the genus Pristimantis are acknowledged for their direct development into froglets and for their astonishing species richness, which renders it the anuran genus with the highest number of species. We describe a new species of Pristimantis from the northwestern Andes of Colombia. The species is distributed from an area between 2750-2900 m.a.s.l. in the Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve. Pristimantis postducheminorum sp. nov. differs from other, phylogenetically related, or similar resembling Pristimantis taxa by a striking yellow coloration in the ventral area, dark grey coloration in the concealed surfaces of the thighs and groin, absence of nuptial pads, presence of lateral fringes on fingers, presence of vomerine odontophores triangular in shape from the ventral view, and absence of dorsolateral folds. Molecular phylogenetics place this new species close to P. satagius and therefore within the P. ridens species group. The new species is also phylogenetically close and sympatric with the recently described P. ferwerdai, which further indicates that the Pristimantis fauna has been notoriously underestimated in the Colombian western cloud forests, a fact that should be considered in assessments of environmental impact.  

An elusive new species of gymnophthalmid lizard (Cercosaurinae, Selvasaura) from the Andes of northern Peru

We describe a new species of Selvasaura from the montane forests of the eastern slopes of the Andes in northern Peru, based on external and hemipenial morphological characters and previous phylogenetic analyses. The new species can be differentiated from the other two Selvasaura species in having keeled dorsal scales usually flanked by longitudinal striations, in adults and juveniles; adult males with a yellow vertebral stripe bordered by broad dark brown stripes on each side and a unilobed hemipenis surrounded by the branches of the sulcus spermaticus. The description of the new species contributes information about new states of diagnostic characters of Selvasaura and natural history.