Sceloporus asper Boulenger
Sceloporus asper Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1897:497, October, 1897.—La Cumbre de los Arrastrados, Jalisco, México.
Apatzingán (3); 10 km. E of Dos Aguas; Uruapan (41).
This strictly arboreal lizard is abundant in the mixed broad-leafed forest near Uruapan. The lizards are exceedingly wary and can be approached only with difficulty. In life males have pale blue bellies; the throat is pale pink. The pale gray dorsum marked with irregular darker gray blotches blends well with the color of the tree trunks on which the lizard lives. The one specimen from Dos Aguas was found on a pine tree; it provides the only record for the species from the Sierra de Coalcomán.
Sceloporus bulleri Boulenger
Sceloporus bulleri Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1894:729, April, 1895.—Las Cumbre de los Arrastrados, Jalisco, México.
Acuaro de las Lleguas (13); Barolosa (9); Dos Aguas (61); 10 km. NE of Dos Aguas (5).
Heretofore this species has been known only from a few specimens from scattered localities in the Sierra Madre Occidental in southwestern Jalisco and Sinaloa. The collection of a large series of these lizards in virgin pine forest at elevations of more than 2000 meters in the Sierra de Coalcomán now makes possible an analysis of variation in the species.
Superficially S. bulleri resembles S. torquatus, but S. bulleri is smaller, has more dorsal scales, fewer scales in the dark collar, and fewer femoral pores. In 88 specimens of S. bulleri there are 36-41 (38.7) dorsal scales and 2 or 3 (2.6) middorsal scales in the collar, as compared with 28-31 (29.3) dorsal scales and 3 or 4 (3.4) middorsal scales in the collar of 26 specimens of S. torquatus from Uruapan. In 20 adult males of S. bulleri there are 13-15 (14.3) femoral pores, and 13-16 (14.4) in 11 females; 13 males of S. torquatus have 14-21 (17.3) femoral pores, and 13 females have 15-21 (16.7). Seventeen adult males of S. bulleri have snout-vent lengths of 72-91 (82.0); ten females, 71-87 (75.7). In comparison, 13 adult males of S. torquatus have an average snout-vent length of 88.9 mm., and 13 females, 88.5 mm. In S. bulleri there is little variation in the head scales. The frontal is in contact with the interparietal in 63, and not in 24, specimens; the median frontonasal is in contact with the frontal in 13, and not in 74, specimens. In 39 specimens there are two canthals, and in 48 there is one; in 29 specimens there are three preauriculars, and in 58 there are four.
In life adult males have a pale blue tail, bright blue belly patches, a purplish blue throat, and pale blue lines on the sides of the head and neck.