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Type: Article
Published: 2021-03-19
Page range: 261–274
Abstract views: 249
PDF downloaded: 16

A new species of Sitana (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Deccan Peninsula Biogeographic Zone of India

Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
3Department of Zoology, Fakir Mohan University, Nuapadhi, Balasore, 756089, Odisha, India.
WII-C2C, Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, 248001, Uttarakhand, India.
Zoological Survey of India, Central Zone Regional Centre, Vijay Nagar, Jabalpur, 482002 Madhya Pradesh, India.
Reptilia Andhra Pradesh Chhattisgarh Odisha India Sitana sivalensis complex taxonomy

Abstract

We describe a new species of fan-throated lizard of the genus Sitana from the Deccan peninsula of India. The new species is from the Sitana sivalensis clade and can be readily diagnosed morphologically from S. sivalensis, S. fusca and S. schleichi by having the dewlap extending beyond forearm insertion. The new species differs from all other congeners in the combination of morphological characters such as a feebly serrated dewlap with a dark blue line on the throat in adult males (versus  a well serrated dewlap with a bright blue patch and orange spots in S. ponticeriana complex), small body size (versus a large body size in S. gokakensis and S. thondalu) and a relatively smaller dewlap size (relatively larger in S. laticeps, S. spinaecephalus, S. dharwarensis, S. gokakensis, S. thondalu, S. marudhamneydhal, S. ponticeriana and S. visiri). The new species was found to be commonly distributed in arid and open habitats as well as in farmlands and plantations in northern Andhra Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh and most parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha states.

 

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