New Cnemidophorus (Squamata: Teiidae) from Bahia State, Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

A new lizard species of the genus Cnemidophorus (Teiidae) is described from Dunas do Abaeté, Salvador Municipality, Bahia State, northeastern Brazil, where it occurs in sympatry with Cnemidophorus ocellifer. The new species is characterized by normally having three rather than four supraoculars as in the other known members of the ocellifer complex. Its tail is bright blue-green, in contrast to the brownish tail of C. ocellifer. The new species differs conspicuously from the closely related congeners C. ocellifer, Cnemidophorus nativo, and Cnemidophorus littoralis in color pattern and in certain meristic characters, such as the number of femoral pores, number of subdigital lamellae on fingers and toes, and counts of transverse ventral scale rows.