The genus Enyalius currently comprises nine species of arboreal and semi-arboreal lizards (Rodrigues et al., 2006). Enyalius are distributed along the remaining Atlantic forest, with the exception of the undescribed taxon E. aff. bilineatus which occurs in the Cerrado and E. lechii which is restricted to the Amazon. (Nogueira, Valdujo and França 2005; Rodrigues et al., 2006). Enyalius lechii (Boulenger, 1885) is a little-known lizard species with a poor representation in zoological collections (Avila-Pires, 1995; Vitt, 1996). It is distributed across the southern Amazon, including the states of Maranhão, Pará, Mato Grosso and Rondônia (Avila-Pires, 1995; Rodrigues et al., 2006; Macedo et al., 2008; Avila-Pires et al., 2009).

During investigations conducted on June 16 2005 in a forest fragment neighbouring the city of Monte Negro, state of Rondônia, Brazil (-10.2588S -63.3228W) an individual of E. lechii was found dead on the leaf litter. The individual was deposited in the Herpetological collection of the Zoology Museum of the Santa Cruz State University, in Ilhéus, state of Bahia (MZUESC 4631). This is the third record of E. lechii for the state of Rôndonia (Avila-Pires, 1995), being 160 km south

of the previous record near Lake Samuel, close to Porto Velho (Avila-Pires, 1995) and 340 km northwest of the previous record near Espigão do Oeste (Macedo, Bernade and Abe, 2008).

This new record highlights our lack of knowledge on E. lechii, which is not only the result of poor sampling in many areas of the Amazon (Freitas, França and Veríssimo, 2011) but also of the species cryptic behaviour, low population densities and high vegetation density across its habitat (Van Sluys, Ferreira and Rocha, 2004; Rautenberg and Laps, 2010) . Systematic surveys should be undertaken in order to improve our understanding of the distribution of this species and other widely distributed but poorly surveyed herpetofauna (Vitt, Ávila-Pires and Zani, 1996; Freitas, França and Veríssimo, 2011).

Acknowledgements. We would like to thank Antônio Jorge Suzart Argôlo, curator of the Herpetology Collection of the Zoology Museum of the Santa Cruz State University for receiving the specimen and confirming its identification.

References

Avila-Pires, T.C.S. (1995): Lizards of Brazilian Amazonia (Reptilia: Squamata). Zoologische Verhandelingen 299: 1-706.

Avila-Pires, T.C.S., Vitt, L.J. Sartorius, S.S, Zani, P.A. (2009): Squamata (Reptilia) from four sites in southern Amazonia, with a biogeographic analysis of Amazonian lizards. Bol. Mus. Para. Emilio. Goeldi, Cienc. Nat. 4(2): 99-118.

Freitas, M.A., França, D.P.F., Veríssimo, D. (2011): First record of Cercosaura eigenmanni (Griffin, 1917) (Squamata: Gym-nophthalmidae) for the state of Acre, Brazil. Check List 7(4): 516-516.

Macedo, L.C., Bernade, P.S., Abe, A.S. (2008): Lagartos (Squamata: Lacertilia) em áreas de floresta e de pastagem em Espigão do Oeste, Rondônia, sudoeste da Amazônia, Brasil. Biota Neotr. 8(1): 133-139.

Herpetology Notes, volume 5: 33-34 (2012) (published online on 2 March 2012)

Distribution extension for the lizard Enyalius lechii (Boulenger, 1885) (Squamata: Leiosauridae):

Third record for the state of Rondônia, Brazil

Marco Antonio de Freitas1*, Diogo Veríssimo2, Saymon de Albuquerque3 and Tiago de Oliveira Lima4

1 Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio). Rua do INCRA S/N. Eldorado. CEP 69932-000. Brasiléia, AC, Brasil.

2 University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology. Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NR, UK.

3 Universidade Federal do Acre – UFAC, Campus Univer-sitário. BR 364, Km 04, Distrito Industrial. CEP 69915-900. Rio Branco, AC, Brasil. PPG em ecologia e manejo de recursos naturais, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil.

4 Centro Universitário Metodista Izabela Hendrix, Departamen-to de Ciências Biológicas, Centro, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, CEP-31.000-000.

*Corresponding author; email: philodryas@hotmail.com

Marco Antonio de Freitas et al. 34

Nogueira, C., Valdujo, P.H., França, F.G.R. (2005): Habitat variation and lizard diversity in a Cerrado area of Central Brazil. Stud. Neotrop. Fauna E. 40: 105-112.

Rautenberg, R., Laps, R.R. (2010): Natural history of the lizard Enyalius iheringii (Squamata, Leiosauridae) in southern Brazi-lian Atlantic forest. Iheringia, Sér. Zool. 100(4): 287-290.

Rodrigues, M.T., Freitas, M.A., Silva, T.F.S., Bertolotto, C.E.V. (2006): A new species of lizard genus Enyalius (Squamata, Leiosauridae) from the highlands of Chapada Diamantina, sta-te of Bahia, Brazil, with a key to species. Phyllomedusa 5(1): 11-24.

Van Sluys, M., Ferreira, V.M., Rocha, C.F.D. (2004): Natural his-tory of the lizard Enyalius brasiliensis (Lesson, 1828) (Leio-sauridae) from an Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. Braz. J. Biol. 64(2): 353-356.

Vitt, L.J., Ávila-Pires, T.C.S., Zani, P.A. (1996): Observations on the ecology of the rare Amazonian lizard, Enyalius leechii (Po-lychrotidae). Herpet. Nat. Hist. 4(1): 77-82.

Figure 1. Adult specimen of Enyalius lechii found near the city of Monte Negro, Rondônia, Brazil (Photo by Marco Antonio de Freitas).

Accepted by Philip de Pous