A systematic revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds two genera and reveals two new species
Author
Pal, Saunak
Author
Vijayakumar, S. P.
Author
Shanker, Kartik
Author
Jayarajan, Aditi
Author
Deepak, V.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-09-19
4482
3
401
450
journal article
29419
10.11646/zootaxa.4482.3.1
5916d93e-11d4-49c5-8085-8bcd37d3739b
1175-5326
1440674
10258391-162F-4C7D-AA5E-1A03A4F3FE19
Monilesaurus
gen. nov.
Type species.
Calotes rouxii
(Duméril &
Bibron, 1837
)
Content.
Monilesaurus ellioti
comb. nov
.
,
Monilesaurus montanus
gen. et sp. nov
.
,
Monilesaurus rouxii
comb. nov
.
and
Monilesaurus acanthocephalus
gen. et sp. nov
.
Etymology.
The genus epithet is derived by adding the word ‘Monile’ meaning necklace in Latin referring to the distinct neck fold in this genus and the Greek word
sauros
meaning lizard which is latinized here as
saurus
.
Diagnosis.
Monilesaurus
gen. nov
.
can be easily diagnosed from all members of
draconinae
lizards from the Indian subcontinent except
Psammophilus
in having an antehumeral fold, which mostly extends below the dewlap forming a fused fold on the shoulder and the neck. It differs from
Psammophilus
in having a dorso-laterally compressed body and lower number of scales on the mid-body. Supratympanic spines are present, in the form of two separated spines vs clusters in
Calotes
and
Psammophilus
. From
Microauris
gen. nov
.
by having a relatively large tympanum (
Fig. 9c
vs. 9b). Scales on head large uniform shield like (vs small, sub-triangular) (
Fig. 10a
vs 10d).
Monilesaurus
gen. nov
.
can be easily diagnosed from the genera
Otocryptis
,
Sarada
Deepak, Karanth & Giri, 2016
and
Sitana
Cuvier, 1829
by the presence of a well-developed fifth toe (
Smith, 1935
;
Deepak
et al.
2016
).
Monilesaurus
gen. nov
.
differs from
Mantheyus phuwuanensis
by the absence of femoral pores (
Manthey & Nabhitabhata, 1991
;
Ananjeva & Stuart 2001
); from the members of the genus
Bronchocela
by the presence of postorbital and supratympanic spines (
Hallermann & Böhme 2000
); from
Cophotis
,
Ceratophora
,
Lyriocephalus
,
Ptyctolaemus
Peters, 1864
,
Phoxophrys
Hubrecht, 1881
by the presence of external tympanum (
Boulenger, 1885
;
Smith, 1935
;
Inger, 1960
;
Pethiyagoda & Manamendra-Arachchi 1998
;
Schulte II
et al
. 2004
;
Bahir & Silva 2005
;
Manamendra-Arachchi
et al
. 2006
;
Samarawickrama
et al
. 2006
).
Monilesaurus
gen. nov
.
can be diagnosed from
Japalura,
Gray 1853
by the absence of heterogenous dorsal scales and short and thick nuchal scales; from
Salea
Gray, 1845
(
S. anamallayana
and
S. horsfieldii
) by the presence of small regular lateral scales and the absence of enlarged plate like scales between the eye and tympanum (
Smith, 1935
); from
Complictus nigrigularis
(
Ota & Hikida, 1991
),
Hypsicalotes kinabaulensis
(de Grijs, 1937)
,
Malayadracon robinsonii
(Boulenger, 1908),
Oriocalotes
(
Günther, 1864
)
Pseudocophotis
(
Manthey & Grossmann, 1997
)
and
Pseudocalotes
by the absence of enlarged row of suborbital scales (
Smith, 1935
;
Taylor 1963
;
Ota & Hikida, 1991
;
Manthey & Denzer 1992
;
Inger & Steubing 1994
;
Ota & Hikida, 1996
;
Hallermann & Böhme 2000
;
Manthey & Denzer, 2000
;
Hallermann & McGuire 2001
;
Leong 2001
;
Manamendra-Arachchi
et al
. 2006
;
Samarawickrama
et al
. 2006
;
Ananjeva
et al
. 2007
;
Hallermann & Böhme 2007
;
Das & Lakim 2008
;
Hallermann
et al
. 2010
;
Mahony 2010
;
Harvey
et al
. 2014
;
Denzer
et al
. 2015
; Grismer LL
et al
. 2016;
Harvey
et al
. 2017
).
Taxonomic comments.
Monilesaurus rouxii
comb. nov
.
was described as
Calotes rouxii
(Duméril &
Bibron, 1837
)
. The name bearing type is a male specimen housed at MNHN. The type locality of this species is named as “Indes orientales”.
Günther (1864)
described another similar looking species from southern India,
Calotes ellioti
. Based on their size similarity
Smith (1935)
called them dwarf species. Here, we formally transfer these two extant species to this new genus. We also describe two new species belonging to this genus based on similar morphological characters and their phylogenetic position.