Diploderma yongshengense, Liu & Hou & Rao & Ananjeva, 2022

Liu, Shuo, Hou, Mian, Rao, Dingqi & Ananjeva, Natalia B., 2022, Three new species of Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 (Squamata, Agamidae) from the Hengduan Mountain Region, south-western China, ZooKeys 1131, pp. 1-30 : 1

Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov.

Figs 9 , 10 , 11

Holotype.

KIZ2022009, adult male, collected on 24 April 2022 by Shuo Liu from the Jinsha River Valley, Songping Township, Yongsheng County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China (27°2′2″N, 100°28′16″E, 1700 m elevation).

Paratypes.

KIZ2022008, KIZ2022010-KIZ2022011, three adult males, collecting information the same as the holotype.

Etymology.

The specific epithet refers to Yongsheng County, where the new species was discovered.

Diagnosis.

Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. can be diagnosed from congeners by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: (1) body size moderate, SVL 56.5-58.5 mm in males; (2) tail long, TAL/SVL 2.02-2.20 in males; (3) limbs relatively long, FLL/SVL 0.48-0.51 in males, HLL/SVL 0.79-0.87 in males; (4) head moderately wide, HW/HL 0.66-0.75 in males; (5) MD 38-41; (6) F4S 16-19, T4S 22-25; (7) tympanum concealed; (8) nuchal and dorsal crests moderately developed on weak skin folds in males; (9) distinct transverse gular fold present; (10) ventral scales of head and body strongly keeled; (11) ventral head scales heterogeneous in size; (12) gular spot present in males, blue or green in life; (13) dorsolateral stripes jagged in males, light yellow in life; (14) radial stripes around the eyes indistinct; (15) oral cavity, inner lips and tongue light flesh colour in life.

Description of holotype.

Adult male, SVL 58.5 mm; tail long, TAL 128.7 mm, TAL/SVL 2.20; limbs relatively long, FLL 27.9 mm on left side, FLL/SVL 0.48, HLL 46.5 mm on left, HLL/SVL 0.79. Head relatively robust, HW/HL 0.75, HD/HW 0.87; snout moderately long, SEL/HL 0.37. Rostral elongated, bordered by five small postrostral scales; dorsal head scales heterogeneous, all strongly keeled; distinct Y-shaped ridge on dorsal snout. Nasal oval, separated from first supralabial by single row of scales; loreals small, keeled; suborbital scale rows 4/4, keeled; canthus rostralis elongated, greatly overlapping with each other; enlarged, keeled scales forming single lateral ridge from posteroinferior eye to posterosuperior tympanum on each side; tympanum concealed under scales; SL 9/9, feebly keeled. Mental pentagonal; IL 11/10; enlarged chin shields 5/5, smooth, first one contacting IL on each side, remaining ones separated from IL by two rows of small scales; ventral head scales heterogeneous in size with the ones on the centre of gular pouch largest, all strongly keeled; distinct transverse gular fold present; gular pouch well developed.

Distinct shoulder fold present; dorsal body scales heterogeneous in size and shape, all keeled, tip pointing backwards; axillary scales much smaller than remaining dorsals; enlarged dorsal scales irregularly scattered on lateral surface of body. Nuchal crest scales approximately same in size and shape as dorsal crest scales; moderately developed skin fold under nuchal crest and feeble skin fold under dorsal crest; MD 38. Dorsal limb scales strongly keeled, mostly homogeneous, except a few enlarged, conical scales on postaxial thighs; F4S 17/16, T4S 23/23. Ventral body scales approximately parallel, almost homogeneous, all strongly keeled, VN 59. Ventral limb scales parallel, almost homogeneous, approximately equal in size to ventrals, all strongly keeled. Tail scales all strongly keeled, ventral tail scales larger than dorsal tail scales.

Colouration of holotype in life.

Dorsal surface of head brown with no transverse bands. Lateral surfaces of head brownish-white. No radial stripes present around eyes, only two brownish-black stripes present behind eye on each side. Oral cavity, inner lips and tongue light flesh colour.

Dorsal surface of body brown. A light yellow dorsolateral longitudinal stripe with relatively straight upper edge and strongly jagged lower edge present on each side of body from occipital region to pelvis. Some brownish-black transverse bands present between two dorsolateral stripes. Some light yellow spots scattered below dorsolateral stripe on each side of body. Dorsal surfaces of limbs greyish-brown. Some indistinct dark transverse bands present on dorsal surfaces of limbs. Dorsal surface of tail brownish-grey with some indistinct dark transverse bands.

Ventral surface of head yellowish-white. A triangular, light yellow edged light blue gular spot present on posterior central part, indistinct brown stripes present on other region of ventral head. Ventral surfaces of body, limbs and tail white with no patterns.

Variations.

The variations of morphological character of the type series are provided in Table 4 . The variations of colouration in life are as follows: the paratypes resemble the holotype in most aspects, except that there are indistinct transverse bands on the dorsal surface of the head in all paratypes; the gular spot is light green in the paratypes KIZ2022008 and KIZ2022010; the dorsal colouration is darker, the stripes on the ventral surface of head are more distinct in the paratypes KIZ2022008 and KIZ2022011; and there are some brown speckles on the ventral surfaces of body, limbs and tail in the paratype KIZ2022008.

Comparisons.

From species of Diploderma which are only distributed on East Asian Islands, Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. differs from D. brevipes , D. luei , D. makii , D. polygonatum and D. swinhonis by the presence of a transverse gular fold (vs. absence).

From species of Diploderma which are distributed on mainland, but relatively distant from that of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov., Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. differs from D. chapaense , D. fasciatum , D. hamptoni , D. menghaiense , D. micangshanense , D. ngoclinense and D. yunnanense by the presence of a transverse gular fold (vs. absence); from D. dymondi , D. varcoae , by having concealed tympana (vs. exposed); from D. grahami by having a much longer tail (TAL/SVL 2.02-2.20 vs. 1.64) and a distinct transverse gular fold (vs. feeble); and from D. splendidum by having jagged dorsolateral stripes in males (vs. smooth).

From species of Diploderma which occupy distributions relatively close to that of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. in the Hengduan Mountain Region, Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. differs from D. panlong , D. slowinskii and D. swild by having concealed tympana (vs. exposed); from D. drukdaypo and D. vela by the presence of a colourful gular spot in males in life (vs. absence); from D. angustelinea , D. bowoense , D. brevicauda , D. formosgulae , D. laeviventre , D. qilin and D. zhaoermii by having a blue or green gular spot in males in life (vs. chartreuse, lilac, orange or yellow); from D. aorun by having less distinct radial stripes around the eyes (vs. more distinct), less distinct stripes on the ventral surface of head (vs. more distinct speckles or vermiculated patterns) and heterogeneous ventral head scales (vs. homogeneous); from D. batangense by having white ventral surface of body in males in life (vs. yellow); from D. flaviceps by the presence of a colourful gular spot in males in life (vs. absence); from D. flavilabre by having light flesh coloured inner lips in life (vs. yellow); from D. iadinum by having brown dorsal ground colouration in males in life (vs. emerald green); from D. panchi by having less mid-dorsal crest scales (MD 38-41 vs. 42-46) and heterogeneous ventral head scales (vs. homogeneous); and from D. yangi by having jagged dorsolateral stripes in males (vs. smooth).

Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. is phylogenetically sister to D. yulongense , but Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. can be differentiated from the latter by having a blue or green gular spot in males in life (vs. chartreuse or opaline green), more distinct stripes on the ventral surface of head (vs. less distinct), white ventral and ventrolateral surface of body in males in life (vs. green) and light yellow dorsolateral stripes and enlarged scales on each side of body in males in life (vs. greenish-yellow).

Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. differs from Diploderma limingense sp. nov. by having less mid-dorsal crest scales (MD 38-41 vs. 45-48), a blue or green gular spot in males in life (vs. yellowish-white), white ventral surfaces of body, limbs and tail in males in life (vs. light brick red) and light flesh coloured inner lips and tongue in life (vs. inner lips bright yellow, tongue light orange).

Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. differs from Diploderma shuoquense sp. nov. by having a larger body size in males (SVL 56.5-58.5 vs. 48.2-52.3), a relatively longer tail in males (TAL/SVL 2.02-2.20 vs. 1.87-1.97), relatively longer hind limbs in males (HLL/SVL 0.79-0.87 vs. 0.69-0.74), more subdigital lamellae of fourth toe (22-25 vs. 19-21) and strongly keeled ventral scales of head (vs. smooth or weakly keeled) and the presence of a distinct colourful gular spot in males in life (vs. absence).

Distribution.

This species is presently known from Yongsheng and Ninglang counties, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China, it probably occurs in adjacent Muli County, Sichuan Province, China (Fig. 1 ).

Natural history.

This species is terrestrial, inhabiting the hot-dry valley. There are a few trees and many rocks at the type locality (Fig. 12E, F ). All specimens were collected between 2 and 4 p.m. when they were basking on large rocks, no female or juvenile being found. The population density of this species was relatively high, however, the habitats of this species being seriously threatened by human activities. According to IUCN Criteria, we recommend listing this new species as Near Threatened (NT).

Figures

Figure 1. Map showing the type localities of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. (black triangle), Diploderma shuoquense sp. nov. (black dot) and Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. (black square) in the Hengduan Mountain Region, south-western China. The elevation data were obtained from Geospatial Data Cloud (2022).

Figure 9. Dorsal view (top) and ventral view (bottom) of type series of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. in preservative.

Figure 10. Holotype (KIZ 2022009) of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. in life A dorsolateral view B lateral view C ventral view D close up-view of the lateral side of the head E close-up view of the ventral side of the head F close-up view of the oral cavity.

Figure 11. Paratypes of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. in life A dorsolateral view of the paratype KIZ 2022008 B ventral view of the paratype KIZ 2022008 C lateral view of the paratype KIZ 2022010 D ventral view of the paratype KIZ 2022010.

Figure 12. Habitats of the new species A distant view of the type locality of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. B close view of the type locality of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. C distant view of the type locality of Diploderma shuoquense sp. nov. D close view of the type locality of Diploderma shuoquense sp. nov. E distant view of the type locality of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov. F close view of the type locality of Diploderma yongshengense sp. nov.