A new species of the Liolaemus elongatus group (Iguania: Liolaemidae)from Neuquén Province, Argentina, with comments on its genital morphology

Abstract

The genus Liolaemus includes small and medium size lizards distributed in South America. It is the second-most diverse iguanian group in the world. The genus is divided in two subgenera, and many taxonomic subgroups have been proposed within these. Here, we describe a new species of Liolaemus , of the L. elongatus group. The new taxon is distributed in the vicinity of L. burmeisteri , L. crandalli , L. gununakuna , L. punmahuida and L. tregenzai , but it can be distinguished from them and from all other species of the group by a combination of lepidosis and morphometrical character states. The morphological evidence shows strong support that the population under study corresponds to a new taxon. With the description of the new species, the number of members of the L. elongatus group rises to twenty-two, but many populations still correspond to undescribed species.