Salea jerdonii, Gray, 1846

Das, Sunandan, Campbell, Patrick D., Deuti, Kaushik, Bag, Probhat & Raha, Sujoy, 2019, A contribution to the systematics of Salea anamallayana (Beddome, 1878) and S. horsfieldii Gray, 1845 (Squamata: Agamidae: Draconinae), Zootaxa 4563 (3), pp. 563-583 : 570

Systematic status of Salea jerdonii

Gray (1846) described Salea jerdonii based on two specimens sent in by T. C. Jerdon. Both specimens were males and therefore had the characteristic nuchal and dorsal crests which led Gray to think that these two specimens may represent two distinct species. Later, Günther (1864) realized that syntypes of S. jerdonii are actually males of S. horsfieldii and subsequently synonymized S. jerdonii . Other workers since (e.g. Boulenger 1885; Smith 1935) also considered S. jerdonii to be a synonym of S. horsfieldii following Günther. However, the original description was very short. Here we have presented the mensural and meristic data of the two syntypes—NHM 1946.8.14.13–14— in Table 2. These two specimens ( Figure 4 ) do not differ from S. horsfieldii in body proportions and scalation data nor do they demonstrate any difference in qualitative characters. Although Gray (1946) stated “Madras” as the type locality, Jerdon (1853) himself stated that these lizards are found only in Nilgiri hills and Smith (1935) also restricted the type locality of S. jerdonii to the Nilgiri hills. Hence it can be seen that these two specimens actually originated from the geographic range of S. horsfieldii . Taking all of this into account we also regard S. jerdonii to be a subjective synonym of S. jerdonii , thus reconfirming the decision made by Günther (1864).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Syntypes of Salea jerdonii (Dorsal view of NHM 1946.8.14.14 [A] and NHM 1946.8.14.13 [B]).