MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION AND ANCESTRAL STATE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE HEMIPENES OF FIVE Anolis SPECIES (SQUAMATA: DACTYLOIDAE) DISTRIBUTED IN THE TRANS-ANDEAN REGION IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

Morphology of the male genitalia, the hemipenis, have shown to be very important and useful for identification, differentiation and taxonomy of squamates, especially for species that have very similar external morphology, it has also been used in the establishment of phylogenetic relationships. In the Colombian Andes, there are 29 species of Anolis belonging to the fuscoauratus group, lizards with very similar external morphology, which usually makes them very difficult to identify. Here we studied and compared the hemipenial morphology of five species of Anolis distributed on Colombian Andes: Anolis antonii, A. fuscoauratus, A. mariarum, A. tolimensis and a recently proposed species from the eastern cordillera, Anolis candidate 1. In order to establish if hemipenial characters would be useful to differentiate these species, we also made a phylogenetic and ancestral state reconstruction, including the mentioned species and others phylogenetically close. Our observations showed that presence of skin ridge on the asulcate face, its size and extension, as well as lobes size respect to the total length of the hemipenis, and presence of fleshy projections can be very useful for identification of Anolis species. We also presented the first description of this organ for A. antonii and A. tolimensis. Also, we found three different morphologies for A. mariarum. Finally, we support the Anolis candidate 1 due to its different hemipenial morphology respect to other species of the genus, which mainly differs for its size and prominence of its skin ridge.