Cristidorsa, Wang & Che & Lin & Deepak & Aniruddha & Jiang & Jin & Chen & Siler, 2019

Wang, Kai, Che, Jing, Lin, Simin, Deepak, V., Aniruddha, Datta-Roy, Jiang, Ke, Jin, Jieqiong, Chen, Hongman & Siler, Cameron D., 2019, Multilocus phylogeny and revised classification for mountain dragons of the genus Japalura s. l. (Reptilia: Agamidae: Draconinae) from Asia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185, pp. 246-267 : 262

Cristidorsa

For congeners from Myanmar, both our morphological and molecular data support the previous hypothesis that Myanmar populations of Cristidorsa cf. planidorsata were misidentified, and are, in fact, C. otai . When discussing the taxonomy of Myanmar populations of C. planidorsata (considered as J. planidorsata ), Mahony (2009) stated specifically that the only available specimen (juvenile) of C. planidorsata examined from Myanmar resembled the morphology of C.otai . However, given the lack of access to adult specimens from Myanmar, Mahony (2009) conservatively treated the Myanmar population as C. cf. planidorsata , but called for further investigation on the taxonomic status of these populations. Based on our data, the individuals of previously identified C. cf. planidorsata from Myanmar are not monophyletic with respect to the topotypic C. planidorsata , but instead, form a monophyletic group with topotypic C. otai from north-east India ( Fig. 2, clade G). In addition, the morphological characteristics of the Myanmar populations match the diagnoses of C. otai and differ from C. planidorsata , including having flattened and posteriorly pointing conical scales on the temporal region of the head, shorter body lengths TRL 41.8–47.4% SVL, longer tails TAL 154.6–190.8% SVL, and shorter lip-stripes ending anterior to the limb insertion ( Mahony, 2009). Therefore, we diagnose the Myanmar populations of C. cf. planidorsata as C. otai , and recommend that records of the former species in Myanmar be corrected to represent the latter.