Research Article |
Corresponding author: Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco ( manturcios21@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Günter Gollmann
© 2022 Cristopher A. Antúnez-Fonseca, Marcio Martínez, Travis W. King, Diego I. Ordoñez-Mazier, Larry D. Wilson, Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Antúnez-Fonseca CA, Martínez M, King TW, Ordoñez-Mazier DI, Wilson LD, Turcios-Casco MA (2022) Filling a gap in the distribution of the Berthold’s Bush Anole, Polychrus gutturosus (Squamata, Polychrotidae), in Honduras. Herpetozoa 35: 219-223. https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e86751
|
The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843 is represented in Honduras by a single species, Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845. This canopy dweller is distributed in the lowland moist forests and riparian forest within pine savannah of the northern and eastern regions of Honduras. Only 13 records and nine localities support the presence of the species in the country; therefore, the distribution and natural history of the species in Honduras is essentially unknown. Herein, we provide a new locality and natural history observations of a specimen captured in the core zone of the Reserva del Hombre y La Biosfera del Río Plátano. This record represents the north-western most occurrence of Polychrus gutturosus in a region known as the Mosquitia and fills an important distributional gap for this poorly known species.
canopy, Colón Department, conservation, herpetofauna, La Mosquitia, microhabitat, natural history, protected natural area
The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843, is currently considered monogenean (
In Honduras, P. gutturosus have been detected at low elevations from 10 to 410 m in the Caribbean slope, northern and eastern region, in the departments of Atlántida, Cortés, and Gracias a Dios (
Polychrus gutturosus is a diurnal and arboreal species, inhabiting mainly the forest canopy (
The conservation status of P. gutturosus is potentially inaccurate or with data limited. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considered P. gutturosus as Least Concern (
We conducted a week-long field expedition between January and February 2022 to the Wuarska area to carry out annual monitoring of the herpetofauna within the core zone of the RHBRP. In recent decades, Wuarska, core of the RHBRP, was invaded by non-native peoples causing considerable damage to the landscape; even though, agriculture and cattle ranching are not allowed in this world heritage site, these activities led to deforestation (
During our survey, we found an adult individual of P. gutturosus in a riparian forest within the La Carrizalosa stream (Fig.
An adult male bush anole Polychrus gutturosus (CBZ-H-002; Fig.
The specimen has the following measurements (mm): snout-vent length: 118.10; tail length: 353.00; total length: 471.10; head length: 26.90; head width: 20.50; head height: 16.90; hand length: 62.91; foot length: 78.06; axilla-groin length: 71.26; eye diameter: 4.44; weight: 35 g. Most of the morphometric data obtained from our male specimen (CBZ-H-002) detailed in Table
Morphometric comparison of the male (CBZ-H-002) of Polychrus gutturosus with the males reviewed by
Morphometry and meristic characters | Male (CBZ-H-002) |
|
---|---|---|
Axilla-groin length/SVL | 0.60 | 0.45–0.55 (0.53 ± 0.03) |
Tail length/SVL | 2.99 | 3.08–3.55 (3.30 ± 0.16) |
Head length/SVL | 0.23 | 0.18–0.25 (0.22 ± 0.02) |
Head length/Head width | 1.31 | 0.93–1.56 (1.38 ± 0.20) |
Head width/Head height | 1.59 | 0.97–1.34 (1.07 ± 0.13) |
Scales around midbody | 58 | 63–75 (68.4 ± 3.27) |
Vertebral scales | 86 | 75–93 (84.6 ± 5.56) |
Gular scales | 22 | 22–30 (26.9 ± 2.28) |
Diameter eye/head length | 0.17 | 0.30–0.49 (0.35 ± 0.05) |
Subdigitals finger IV | 28 | 30–36 (33.0 ± 1.94) |
Subdigitals toe IV | 34 | 38–44 (41.2 ± 2.15) |
Forelimbs/SVL | 0.53 | 0.37–0.54 (0.49 ± 0.04) |
Hindlimbs/SVL | 0.66 | 0.56–0.73 (0.63 ± 0.06) |
Femoral pores (left) | 12 | 14–19 (15.7 ± 1.49) |
Our observation on P. gutturosus is the first for the species in the department of Colón, and the first record with verifiable evidence for the RHBRP. This specimen was collected 78 km NW from the nearest locality, Kipla Tingni Kiamp, which is part of the Miskitu territorial council (Honduran Mosquitia) of the Federación de Indígenas Nativos de la Zona de Mocorón - Segovia (FINZMOS). Our record fills, in part, a gap of what seemed to be a disjunct distribution for this species in Honduras. Considering the record present herein, the current Honduran distribution of P. gutturosus is in accordance with the map presented by
The snout-vent length measurement of our male specimen (118.10 mm) is in accordance with the range of 87–122 mm presented by
Regarding natural history information, different factors considered important for the selection of roosting perches have been analyzed, these are as follows: physiological aspects such as body temperature during the night and upon returning to activity, voluntary hypothermia to conserve energy; ecological factors such as vegetation structure, predation avoidance, intra- and interspecific competition and biological factors such as species, sex, age, and size (
In addition to the features mentioned above, we consider that the encounter with our specimen of P. gutturosus might have been as a result of its nocturnal fall from a treetop, as it was found in a climbing position close to the ground; a similar event was observed on another canopy dweller lizard in Honduras [e.g. Laemanctus julioi,
The Wuarska forest where we report P. gutturosus, presents patches of recovering (~15 years old); before recovery, this area was invaded by non-native people, replacing these forest patches with crops and pastures for livestock (
We dedicate this work to the late Ing. José Alexander González who offered his life for the sake of conservation of the Río Plátano. We thank Esmelyn Guzmán of the Región Biosfera del Río Plátano de ICF for his outstanding assistance throughout the expedition and fieldwork during which this important record was established. Thanks to Franklin Castañeda and Anthonie Andino for providing access to literature involved in this work. We also extend our gratitude to the collection of the Zamorano Biodiversity Center, EAP, for receiving the specimen. Also to Región Forestal Francisco Morazán and Región Biosfera del Río Plátano of the ICF, and The Big Bat Theory research group for their field assistance. Finally, to the editor and three reviewers who improved this manuscript with their comments and we also wish to thank Lydia Allison Fucsko and Zdravka Zorkova for editing of this paper, which considerably improved it.