<i>Liolaemus pseudoanomalus</i>, A Substitute Name for <i>Liolaemus marmoratus</i> (Burmeister 1861)

Abstract

Recent studies of the South American iguanid lizard genus <i>Ctenoblepharis</i> Tschudi 1845 have led to the conclusion that the ten species formerly referred to this genus probably form an artificial assemblage (Cei 1979a, 1979b, 1980). As a result <i>Ctenoblepharis</i> has been restricted to four species (<i>adspersus, nigriceps, reichei, stolzmanni</i>) from coastal Peru southward to the Atacama Plateau of Chile, and the six remaining species (<i>anomalus, donosobarrios, jamesi, marmoratus, rabinoi, schmidti</i>) from northern Chile and central and western Argentina have been placed in the genus <i>Liolaemus</i> Wiegmann 1835 (Cei 1979b, 1980). One of the latter forms was originally described as Leiosaurus marmoratus Burmeister 1861, and later referred by Muller (1928) to the genus <i>Phrynosaura</i> Werner 1907. Subsequently <i>Phrynosaura</i> was synonymized with <i>Ctenoblepharis</i> by Donoso-Barros (1971). With the allocation of this species of <i>Liolaemus</i> (Cei 1979b, 1980), <i>Liolaemus marmoratus</i> (BurmeisteK 1861) becomes a junior secondary homonym of <i>Liolaemus marmoratus</i> Gravenhorst 1838, a synonym of <i>Liolaemus nitidus</i> Wiegmann 1835 according to Boulenger (1885) and Peters and Donoso-Barros (1970). Accordingly, in the absence of any available junior synonym and in conformance with Art. 53 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the name <i>Liolaemus pseudoanomalus</i> is here proposed as a substitute name for <i>Liolaemus marmoratus</i> (Burmeister 1861). This name alludes to the form’s apparent affinity with the sympatric species <i>Liolaemus anomalus</i> Koslowsky 1895.