RANGE EXTENSION AND NEW MUNICIPALITY RECORD OF ABRONIA TAENIATA (ANGUIDAE) FROM PINAL DE AMOLES, QUERÉTARO, MEXICO

We present data of a specimen which represents a new municipality record and range extension of Abronia taeniata for Pinal de Amoles, Querétaro, México. We also provide a description of the vegetation at the site, and comments on the species’ resilience to habitat perturbation. Finally, we suggest the existence of a previously undocumented large population of A. taeniata in Sierra de Pinal de Amoles based on our finding, and on several observations of the species available through a citizen science platform.

length = 108.4mm; Fig. 1) was sighted motionless at ground level, at approximately 13:00 h.The lizard was apparently basking in an area covered with sparse small bushes, plants, and leaf litter (Fig. 2).We describe the vegetation as a secondary cloud forest.
Mexico: Querétaro: Municipality of Pinal de Amoles: Rancho El Jericó, ca.2.8 km NE (in airline) of Pinal de Amoles town square (21.144306°N, 99.600859 W°; accuracy of 3 m; datum WGS84; 2,064 m a.s.l.).November 2nd, 2017.The adult male (Snout-vent Figura 1. Macho adulto de Abronia taeniata, en vida, recolectado en Rancho El Jericó, ca.2.8 km al NE (en línea aérea) de la plaza principal de Pinal de Amoles.Esta foto fue catalogada con el voucher digital SDSNH_HerpPC_05355.Foto: José Carlos Arenas-Monroy.The arboreal stratum at the locality was mainly composed of Alnus acuminata in association with Tilia mexicana, and Cornus disciflora.These are trees commonly found in perturbed cloud forests in northeastern Querétaro (Zamudio et al., 1992).Whereas downhill, we observed a dry oak forest whose arboreal stratum was dominated by Quercus mexicana, Q. affinis, and Q. laurina; the oaks were scantly covered with moss.According to local inhabitants, approximately 25 years prior to our finding, the area's land-use was mainly field crops and grazing lands.
Interestingly, the vegetation at this locality apparently has regenerated during the past three decades.Should it be the case, our finding adds support to the hypothesis of Clause et al. (2018), that A. taeniata is resilient, and that habitat perturbation might not be a paramount threat for the survival of this species.
Finally, we noticed eight observations (not shown in map) in the iNaturalist platform (GBIF, 2024) of individuals referable to A. taeniata across the same mountain range of our finding.These observations, despite having coordinate obfuscation, suggest that our record is not an isolated specimen in the Sierra de Pinal de Amoles.Further sampling could reveal the existence of a previously undocumented large population of this lizard Figura 3. Mapa que muestra nuestro nuevo registro y los registros anteriores más cercanos publicados de Abronia taeniata en un cuadrante abarcando parte de los estados de Querétaro, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí y Guanajuato.Los signos de interrogación denotan municipios con datos de localidad incierta (sin localidad exacta o coordenadas) para la especie.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1. Adult male of Abronia taeniata, in life, collected at Rancho El Jericó, ca.2.8 km NE (in airline) of Pinal de Amoles town square.This photo was catalogued as digital voucher

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Locality at which the specimen of Abronia taeniata (CAR-UAQ 185) was collected.The arrow indicates approximate site at which the specimen was found.Photo taken on

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Map depicting our new record and previous nearest published records of Abronia taeniata in a quadrant encompassing parts of Querétaro, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, and Guanajuato states.Question marks denote municipalities with uncertain locality data (without exact locality or coordinates) for the species.