Bull. Chi. Herp. Soc. 25(4)-70 An Instance of Albinism in the Ctenosaur Lizard, Ctenosaura similis, in Costa Rica Jose M. Mora Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843 Albinism is a commonly reported anomaly among reptiles (Barten etal, 1986). It has been reported in several genera and farnlies of lizards (Dyrkacz, 1981). To my knowledge, this isthe firs casein a large iguanid. (©n 19 May 1986, a hatchling albino ctenosaur (Crenosaura similis) was collected in the Dr. Rafael Lucas Rodriguez Ne- tional Wildlife Refuge (Palo Verde), Guanacaste Province, ‘Costa Rica (10° 21° N; 85°21" W). Itwas sleeping at a height of 145 em on the vegetation surrounding a female ctenosaur nesting ste. At this site more than S00 normally colored individuals were captured during the hatching seasons of, 1984-1986, ‘The ctenosaur was of typical size for a hatchling of the species, measuring 52 mm snout-vent length and 175 mm total length and weighing S grams. It had a yellowish-pink ground color with four poorly defined broad transverse ‘bands on the body. Normally colored individuals have poor- Jy defined bands; in the albino specimen these bands were Fight brown and even more poorly defined. The eyes and tongue were pink. ‘The animal was maintained in captivity with two normally colored etenosaurs. They were fed live insects that were given by hand or placed in the cage. The two normally colored ctenosaurs accepted hand-held food, while the albino did not; nor was it observed catching free insects in the cage. It died ‘on 4 June 1986, 16 days ater. It was preserved and placed in the collection of the Museum of Zoology of the University ‘of Costa Rica (UCRIO127). An albino frog (Raa temporaria) in England was larly inefficient in catching prey when compared tthe normal frogs in he seme vivarium (Knight, 1980). Is expected that a similar handicap occurs in the svival of albino Hare. A high mortality occas among normal hatching of cenosases contribing to the rary of the condition My thanks to Deana G, Pranke for her assistance in the field and to Guiselle M, Mora for her help in maintenance of the ctenosaurs. M, Di Mare, T. Qureshi and J. Dixon made helpful comments on the manuscript. Financial support was ‘provided by the Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica; World Wildlife Fund (WWE); and Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). ‘The hatchling albino Ctenosaura similis described inthe text is displayed along with ewo normally colored hatchlings. Literature Cited Barten, S, F. Frye, R.- Evans and P. Ihrke. 1986. Coloration: Python molurus bivttatus (Burmese python). SSAR Herp. Rev. 16(2)57. Dyrkacz, S. 1981, Recent instances of albinism in North American amphibians and reptiles, SSAR Herp. Cire. 11 Knight, N. 1980, Albino male Rana temporaria with black nuptial pads. Brit. J. Herpetology 6(2):67-68, n