The Rediscovery of the Guantánamo Striped Curlytail (Leiocephalus onaneyi)

Abstract

Until now, no additional specimens had been collected. On 5 October 2010, we visited the type locality between 1100 and 1700 h, and collected one adult female (Fig. 1) and a small juvenile (Fig. 2). We failed to find L. onaneyi on the mountain slopes, and only observed the species a few meters from the top, where the habitat is dominated by a combination of grass (Sporobolus sp., Poaceae), agaves (Agave sp.), and dense spiny bushes (Fig. 3). Garrido (1973) had commented that L. onaneyi was found exclusively on the top of Loma de L eiocephalus onaneyi was first described by Garrido (1973) from Loma de Macambo, a small limestone mountain, ~160 m in elevation, ~12 km west of Imías, Guantánamo Province, Eastern Cuba (20º03'05"N, 74º44'08"W). The original description was based on one female (holotype), a subadult male, and a juvenile (paratypes) collected by the botanist Onaney Muñiz. The species has been considered to be Critically Endangered (Rodríguez and Chamizo 1998) or "presumed to be extinct in the wild" (Rodríguez 1999).