Diporiphora pindan

Doughty, Paul, Kealley, Luke & Melville, Jane, 2012, Taxonomic assessment of Diporiphora (Reptilia: Agamidae) dragon lizards from the western arid zone of Australia, Zootaxa 3518, pp. 1-24 : 7-10

Pindan Dragon

Figs. 2a , 4 , 5

Holotype. WAM R58402, an adult female collected 2 km north of Coulomb Point, Western Australia (17°18ʹS, 122°10ʹE), on 17 April 1977 by R.E. Johnstone.

Paratypes. All from Western Australia. WAM R166, Streeters Station, Broome(17°48ʹS, 122°14ʹE); WAM R15185, WAM R20262–4, WAMR 20317–29, WAM R26834, WAM R46661, Derby (17°18ʹS, 123°37ʹE); WAM R26216, La Grange (18°40ʹS, 122°01ʹE); WAM R27638, Indujinah Creek (18°38ʹS, 121°52ʹE); WAM R32167, 24 km south of Derby (17°26ʹS, 123°45ʹE); WAM R 36336, 130 km east of Broome (17°58ʹS, 123°28ʹE); WAM R40266, Coulomb Point (17°22ʹS, 122°09ʹE); WAM R46463, Beagle Bay (16°59ʹS, 122°40ʹE); WAM R53979, WAMR 53998, WAMR 54013–4, WAMR 54018–22, WAM R54028–31, WAM R54038, Edgar Ranges (18°21ʹS, 122°53ʹE); WAM R54080, 37 km SSE of McHughes Bore (18°39ʹS, 123°11ʹE); WAM R58403–10; WAM R58461, WAM R58516, WAM R58503, 5 km north of Coulomb Point (17°19ʹS, 122°10ʹE); WAM R58500, WAM R58514, WAM R58515, Martins Well (16°34ʹS, 122°51ʹE); WAM R58517, Dampierland (20°40ʹS, 116°40ʹE); WAM R58605, 26 km ESE Derby (17°23ʹS, 123°51ʹE).

Diagnosis. A slender, small-bodied Diporiphora , with no gular or post-auricular folds, and a weak scapular fold, no crests on the forebody, homogeneous dorsal scales with keels parallel to midline, 0–4 precloacal pores, no femoral pores, 64 or more mid-body scale rows, <24 lamellae on the fourth toe, coloration not yellow-green, and usually with prominent dorsolateral stripes.

Description. A slender and elongate dragon; body round in cross-section with flat venter; head medium with short angular snout; from above, sides of snout slightly convex with rounded tip; head widest behind eyes (HW%SVL: 15–19); neck constricted to ¾ maximum head width; gular and post-auricular folds absent, a weak scapular fold present; limbs slender, arms moderately long, legs long; digits long and slender; finger length: 4>3>2>5>1; toe length: 4>3>5>2>1; canthus well defined; nasal scale below canthal ridge, nare at anterior of nasal. Tail very long and slender (TL%SVL: 205–275); flexible; tapering gradually to fine tip.

Supralabials 8–12 (avg. 10), infralabials 8–11 (avg. 10); tympanum circular; scales on temporal stripe enlarged from eye to posterior edge of tympanum; 0–2 small postauricular spines present; rows of low sharp teeth; upper canines 2; lower canines 2; scales above supralabials angle back from jaw for 2–3 scale rows, uppermost rows comprised of minute scales, and above a row of thin keeled longitudinally-oriented scales beginning at nasal and ending just posterior to midpoint of eye; snout and anterior top of head with distinct keels terminating in 1–4 perforations on posterior edge and aligned horizontally, following contours of snout and eye socket; on posterior top of head scales are more rugose with direction of keels more scattered; 1–2 low post-auricular spines may be present.

Dorsals homogeneous, imbricate, diamond-shaped with low keels terminating posteriorly with small perforation; upper keels on dorsum parallel throughout or at most only weakly converging towards midline; upper lateral scales smaller with keels directed slightly dorsally; lower lateral scales enlarged with low keels; gular and ventral scales keeled, keel terminating in spine projecting past posterior edge of scale; dorsal and ventral scales similar in size; 0–4 precloacal pores, pore located on edge of scale; no femoral pores; hemipenes bifid.

Background pattern and color variable, from complex patterning or plain. Complex pattern ( Fig. 4 a) —background color light brown; pale silver vertebral stripe 2–3 scales wide; prominent pale yellowish-white dorsolateral stripe 1–2 scales wide; dark brown longitudinal markings (4–6 scales long) to either side of dorsolateral stripe, interrupted regularly by background color for 4–8 scales; dorsolateral stripes continuing posteriorly along tail; well-defined lateral stripe absent, lateral zone a mosaic of light and dark scales that transition to pale ventral color; head matches background color; prominent pale temporal stripe often with dark brown border, continuous with dorsolateral stripe with hiatus posterior to tympanum; labials and eyelids pale white; labial stripe terminates at posterior edge of mandible or on neck. Plain pattern—brown to black uniform background color with highly contrasting pale yellow dorsolateral stripes (usually males; Fig. 4 b) or lighter uniform color with no dorsolateral stripes (usually females); males often have a large black circular mark on the sides posterior to the arms. Ventrum pale white; if well-marked, a pair of brownish-gray stripes from near tip of snout, separating through gular region, then in close proximity on neck (often enclosing medial element projecting from neck), then widening and separating on venter (for heavily-marked individuals these ventral lines can merge creating a single dark ventral patch), converging at cloaca; below infralabials a dark stripe continuous with silvery-gray coloration on sides of neck. Strength of ventral patterning appears to vary independently with dorsal coloration.

Habitat. Occurs in vegetation associated with sands, such as Spinifex, grasses, and Acacia . Observed perching on vegetation in the day and while asleep at night; some individuals were found under low ground cover and one specimen was dug from a burrow.

Distribution. Occurs from the Dampier Peninsula in the south-west Kimberley, south through the Great Sandy Desert and occurring along the Pilbara coast as far west as Karratha; east to the Tanami (Fig. 3).

Etymology. The specific name refers to the pindan country of the south-west Kimberley region where the type series was collected and to which it was believed to be confined.

Remarks. Houston (1977) first identified D. pindan and D. valens in his analysis of variation in D. winneckei and description of D. linga , but deferred describing them. Storr (1979) described both forms identified by Houston with more material available at the WAM. In this study it was surprising to find so many D. pindan specimens identified as ‘ D. winneckei ’ in the WAM collections. We suspect part of this was due to a kind of circular logic of believing that D. pindan was restricted to the region around the Dampier Peninsula in the southwest Kimberley (first indicated in Houston’s 1977 paper), combined with the lack of a detailed investigation of morphological variation of arid zone Diporiphora for many decades.

Diporiphora pindan is now known to occur widely through the Great Sandy Desert and in to the Tanami, greatly extending its known range. It also occurs in the sandy coastal region of the Pilbara, a pattern seen in the distributions of several other recently-studied species complexes including the ‘sand-swimming’ skink Eremiascincus musivus ( Mecke et al. 2009) and the frog Uperoleia talpa (Catullo et al. 2010) (see also Doughty et al. 2011a).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Diporiphora pindan in life. Left—complex pattern (J. Melville); right—plain pattern (H. Cook).

FIGURE 5. Variation in Diporiphora pindan.

FIGURE 2 a – f. Gular fold appearance of Diporiphora. A) D. pindan, B) D. vescus sp. nov., C) D. adductus sp. nov., D) D. valens, E) D. winneckei, F) D. paraconvergens sp. nov.