A REVISION OF THE HERPETOFAUNA OF COLIMA, MEXICO

Abstract

_{The herpetofauna of Colima has received relatively little attention until recently. A few state lists and several unpublished dissertations are the only references available for the herpetofauna of the state. Recently a revised herpetofaunal state list was published by Lemos-Espinal et al. (2020). Unfortunately, that revision was published with numerous errors and omissions. Here we review all published accounts on the herpetofauna of Colima as well as two unpublished thesis related to the herpetofauna of the state, and records in online databases (GBIF, Vertnet). We examine museum specimens of previously published taxa and show that many of the species reported from the state are in fact misidentifications, and that other species already known from the state have been ignored in the most recent state list. Additionally we report on six species of amphibians and reptiles that are new records for the state. Based on our revision, we show that the herpetofauna of Colima consists of 148  species, of which 110 are reptiles and 38 are amphibians, with five introduced species.  We also comment on species of possible occurrence in the state. We recommend that other state lists which have been published for Mexico be revised in order to fix a variety of issues and erroneous information in those lists.}