Ameiva ameiva

Pertinent taxonomic references. Seba (1734), Linnaeus (1758), Laurenti (1768), Meyer (1795), Daudin (1802), Cuvier (1817), Lichtenstein (1823), Spix (1825), Fitzinger (1826), Gray (1838, 1845), Duméril & Bibron (1839), Cope (1863, 1868, 1879), Peters (1871), Boulenger (1885), Werner (1909), Barbour & Noble (1915), Barbour (1921), Burt & Burt (1931), Cunha (1961), Gorman (1970), Hoogmoed (1973), Duellman (1978), Hoogmoed & Gruber (1983), Cunha et al. (1985), Peccinini-Seale & Almeida (1986), Nascimento et al. (1988), Ávila-Pires (1995), dos Santos et al. (2007), Giugliano et al. (2007, 2013), Ugueto & Harvey (2011), Harvey et al. (2012), Landauro et al. (2015). Taxonomic remarks. Ugueto & Harvey (2011) studied Ameiva ameiva in Venezuela and divided it into four species, also considered by Harvey et al. (2012), Ameiva ameiva s. s. was contemplated to occur “ throughout Amazonia in southern Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia ”. In Venezuela the species seems to be limited by the Orinoco basin (both sides). Since we examined the specimens before these papers appeared, in order to restrict our data to A. ameiva s. s. we considered only specimens from Venezuela east of the Orinoco river, and in Colombia we restricted our data to specimens from the Amazonian region (departments Amazonas, Caquetá, Guainía, Guaviare, Vaupés and Putumayo).

Distribution and habitat. Ameiva ameiva is widespread in South America, southward reaching southern Brazil and northern Argentina. It occurs in all South American countries except Uruguay and Chile, and in all states of Brazil (Fig. 4). Ameiva ameiva occurs in open and forested environments, in the Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado, Chaco, and Amazonia, representing one of the widest geographic distributions of all Neotropical lizards. Ameiva ameiva is terrestrial (occasionally found climbing fallen tree trunks) and diurnal; in Amazonia it inhabits all forest types, wherein it prefers the open, sunny areas, as river and stream banks, edges of roads and forests, treefall gaps, and natural open vegetation enclaves; it is also found in perianthropic situations (Cunha 1961; Hoogmoed 1973; Duellman 1978; Cunha et al. 1985; Nascimento et al. 1988; Martins 1991; Vitt & Colli 1994; Ávila-Pires 1995; Vitt & Zani 1998; Gorzula & Señaris 1999; Sartorius et al. 1999; Vitt et al. 1999, 2008; Gainsbury & Colli 2003; Molina et al. 2004; Schlüter et al. 2004; Mesquita et al. 2006 a; Ribeiro-Júnior et al. 2008; Barrio-Amorós & Duellman 2009; Ávila-Pires et al. 2010; McCulloch & Reynolds 2012; Reynolds & MacCulloch 2012).