A new ‘horned’ Stenocercus from the highlands of southeastern Brazil, and redescription of Stenocercus tricristatus (Reptilia: Tropiduridae)

• Autor(a) principal: Ávila-Pires,Teresa C. S.
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Nogueira,Cristiano de C., Martins,Marcio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-46702019000100304
• topic: Minas Gerais; new species; Serra da Canastra; Squamata; taxonomy

ABSTRACT A new species of the lizard genus Stenocercus Duméril & Bibron, 1837 is described based on six specimens from Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. Similar to S. tricristatus (Duméril, 1851), S. dumerilii (Steindachner, 1867), S. quinarius Nogueira & Rodrigues, 2006, and S. squarrosus Nogueira & Rodrigues, 2006, the new species has a pyramidal head and an enlarged, dorsally projected post-supraciliary scale, like a small horn. It is most similar to S. tricristatus, from which it differs in having a more elongated head in ventral view; a larger number of scales around midbody; a distinctly enlarged, smooth preauricular scale; and probably a larger body size. Moreover, the new species has distinctly keeled scales, with phylloid and mucronate dorsals; no enlarged supraoculars; no neck folds; a vertebral, and a pair of dorsolateral and (weak) lateral crests. A redescription of S. tricristatus is presented for comparison with the new species.