Three new species of the Anolis punctatus complex from Amazonian and inter-Andean Colombia, with comments on the eastern members of the punctatus species group

'ARVARD UMIVERSiTY B R E V I O R A Museum of Comparative Zoology us ISSN 0006-9698 Cambridge, Mass. 30June1982 Number 467 THREE NEW SPECIES OF THE ANOLIS PVNCTATVS COMPLEX FROM AMAZONIAN AND INTER-ANDEAN COLOMBIA, WITH COMMENTS ON THE EASTERN MEMBERS OF THE PVNCTATUS SPECIES GROUP Ernest E. Williams' Abstract. New species of the Anolis punctaius group are described from central and eastern Colombia: A. vaupesianiis from Comisaria of Vaupes, A. hiiilae from the Departments of Huila and Tolima, A. santamariae from the south slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The characters useful in discriminating the eastern members of the Anolis punciaius species group are discussed and evaluated, and the species themselves are diagnosed. INTRODUCTION Important new collections from Colombia have yielded Anolis that require description. Those dealt with here are allied to Anolis punctatus of Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and, like the other recently described members of the punctatus group (Williams, 1965, 1974), they occur in areas peripheral to the range of that central and widely dispersed species. The three new taxa thus fill in blank areas in the known range of the complex. However, like many others of the punctatus species group, excepting only the central widespread and best-known species punctatus, these are species almost without distributions or ecologies. There are so few localities from which they are known, so little is known about their biology, that they are question marks rather than known compo-nents of fauna. They testify primarily to our basic ignorance of South American lizards. 'Museum of Comparative Zoology. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.