A new species of Petracola (Reptilia: Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) from the Andes of central Peru
Major
Biology
Submission Type
Poster
Area of Study or Work
Biology
Faculty Advisor
Edgar Lehr
Location
CNS Atrium
Start Date
4-11-2026 11:15 AM
End Date
4-11-2026 12:30 PM
Abstract
We diagnose a new species of the rock-dwelling lizard genus Petracola based on morphological characters. This genus is endemic to Peru and currently contains seven species, distributed between 1889 and 3600 m elevation in mountain forests and montane grasslands in the eastern Andes of central and northern Peru. 11 males and 6 females of our species were collected by E. Lehr and Peruvian colleagues in November 2001 at 2980 m elevation in the department of Huánuco. The lizard series was deposited as "Proctoporus sp. nov." in the herpetological collections of the Natural History Museum in Lima, Peru, and the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany, awaiting its description. Molecular genetic studies conducted in 2005 to analyze the phylogeny of spectacled lizards of the genus Proctoporus, revealed that this genus is not monophyletic but polyphyletic. Consequently, several species were reclassified and moved from Proctoporus to other genera. The genus Petracola was named by Doan and Castoe in 2005 to include Petracola ventrimaculatus (Boulenger, 1900) and P. labioocularis (Köhler and Lehr, 2004). Since then, five new species have been described as Petracola. Here, we diagnose our new species and compare it with the other seven Petracola species.
A new species of Petracola (Reptilia: Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) from the Andes of central Peru
CNS Atrium
We diagnose a new species of the rock-dwelling lizard genus Petracola based on morphological characters. This genus is endemic to Peru and currently contains seven species, distributed between 1889 and 3600 m elevation in mountain forests and montane grasslands in the eastern Andes of central and northern Peru. 11 males and 6 females of our species were collected by E. Lehr and Peruvian colleagues in November 2001 at 2980 m elevation in the department of Huánuco. The lizard series was deposited as "Proctoporus sp. nov." in the herpetological collections of the Natural History Museum in Lima, Peru, and the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany, awaiting its description. Molecular genetic studies conducted in 2005 to analyze the phylogeny of spectacled lizards of the genus Proctoporus, revealed that this genus is not monophyletic but polyphyletic. Consequently, several species were reclassified and moved from Proctoporus to other genera. The genus Petracola was named by Doan and Castoe in 2005 to include Petracola ventrimaculatus (Boulenger, 1900) and P. labioocularis (Köhler and Lehr, 2004). Since then, five new species have been described as Petracola. Here, we diagnose our new species and compare it with the other seven Petracola species.