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Issue: Vol. 1909 No. 1: 20 Oct. 2008
Type: Article
Published: 2008-10-20
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1909.1.1
Page range: 1–15
Abstract views: 46
PDF downloaded: 1

A new highland species of Arthrosaura Boulenger, 1885 (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) from Maringma tepui on the border of Guyana and Brazil

Department of Vertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 rue Vautier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Reptilia Arthrosaura hoogmoedi sp. nov. Guiana Shield microteiid Pantepui taxonomy tepuis

Abstract

A new species of Arthrosaura (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) is described based on a female specimen obtained at 2112 m above sea level on Mount Maringma, a poorly known sandstone flat-topped table mountain (tepui) located in the eastern Pakaraima Mountains, at the Guyana-Brazil border. Arthrosaura hoogmoedi sp. nov. is mainly distinguished from its known congeners by the following combination of characters: four supraoculars, prefrontals in contact with loreals, lower eyelid opaque, 32–33 smooth temporal scales, middorsal scales distinctly narrower than adjacent dorsal scales, and a dark brown dorsum with a black middorsal stripe from nape to tail, and a tan ill-defined dorsolateral line from nape to midbody.

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