Diploderma danbaense, Liu & Hou & Ananjeva & Rao, 2023

Liu, Shuo, Hou, Mian, Ananjeva, Natalia B. & Rao, Dingqi, 2023, Four new species of the genus Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 (Squamata, Agamidae) from China, ZooKeys 1148, pp. 167-207 : 167

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov.

Figs 4 , 5 , 6

Type material.

Holotype. KIZ2022048, adult male, collected on 6 August 2022 by Mian Hou from Bawang Township, Danba County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China (30°58'59"N, 101°52'29"E, 2020 m elevation).

Paratypes. KIZ2022049, KIZ2022050, KIZ2022056, three adult males; KIZ2022051, one adult female; collecting information the same as the holotype.

Etymology.

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

Diagnosis.

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. can be diagnosed from congeners by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: (1) body size large, SVL 68.7-77.0 mm in adult males, 76.6 in adult female; (2) tail short, TAL/SVL 1.61-1.78 in adult males, 1.55 in adult female; (3) head relatively long, HW/HL 0.66-0.75 in adult males, 0.63 in adult female; (4) limbs moderately long, FLL/SVL 0.41-0.47 in adult males, 0.44 in adult female, HLL/SVL 0.66-0.70 in adult males, 0.65 in adult female; (5) MD 48-58; (6) F4S 16-20, T4S 21-26; (7) tympanum concealed; (8) nuchal and dorsal crests discontinuous, scales of nuchal and dorsal crests enlarged, strongly erected skin fold under nuchal crest and moderately erected skin fold under dorsal crest in males in life, weakly erected skin fold under nuchal crest and no skin fold under dorsal crest in females in life; (9) distinct transverse gular fold present; (10) ventral scales of head heterogeneous in size, anterior and middle ones larger, posterior and side ones smaller, all strongly keeled; (11) ventral scales of body strongly keeled; (12) gular spot absent in both sexes; (13) dorsolateral stripes distinct in males, strongly jagged, pale yellow in life; (14) a series of dark, hollow, approximately rhomboid patterns between dorsolateral stripes on dorsum; (15) a distinct wide black stripe on shoulder fold region on each side; (16) stripes around eye absent or very indistinct; (17) oral cavity, inner lips, and tongue pale flesh colour in life.

Description of holotype.

Adult male, SVL 77.0 mm; tail short, TAL 130.0 mm, TAL/SVL 1.69; limbs moderately long, FLL 33.1 mm on left side, FLL/SVL 0.43, HLL 53.5 mm on left side, HLL/SVL 0.69. Head relatively long, HW/HL 0.67, HD/HW 0.84; 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 two rows of scales on each side; loreals small, keeled; suborbital scale rows 5/4, keeled; canthus rostralis elongated, scales greatly overlapping each other; enlarged, keeled scales forming single lateral ridge from posteroinferior eye to posterosuperior tympanum on each side; tympanum concealed under scales; SL 10/10, smooth. Mental pentagonal; IL 11/11; enlarged chin shields 10/10, smooth, first one connected IL on each side, second one separated from IL by one row of small scales on each side, remaining ones separated from IL by two rows of small scales on each side; ventral head scales heterogeneous in size, anterior and middle ones larger, posterior and lateral ones smaller, all strongly keeled; distinct transverse gular fold present; gular pouch moderately 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 forming one intermittent longitudinal row between dorsal crest and dorsolateral stripe on each side, remaining enlarged dorsal scales irregularly scattered on each side of body. Nuchal and dorsal crests discontinuous, separated by a diastema, scales of nuchal and dorsal crests enlarged; strongly erected skin fold under nuchal crest and moderately erected skin fold under dorsal crest; MD 48. Dorsal limb scales strongly keeled, homogeneous on fore-limbs and heterogeneous on hind limbs; F4S 17/16, T4S 21/22. Ventral body scales approximately parallel, homogeneous, all strongly keeled, VN 65. Ventral limb scales parallel, small on upper arms and thighs and larger on forearms and crus, all strongly keeled. Tail scales all strongly keeled, ventral tail scales slightly larger than dorsal tail scales.

Colouration of holotype in life.

Dorsal surface of head brownish grey. Two indistinct black transverse bands between orbits on dorsal surface of head. Lateral surfaces of head grey. Two indistinct black stripes from posteroinferior eye to anterior tympanum on each side. Upper lips grey, lower lips white. Oral cavity, inner lips, and tongue with pale flesh colour.

Dorsal surface of body purplish grey. A pale yellow strongly jagged dorsolateral stripe from neck to pelvis on each side of body. A series of dark, hollow, approximately rhomboid-shaped patterns between dorsolateral stripes from neck to base of tail, hollow region pale yellow. A distinct wide black stripe on shoulder fold region on each side. Some irregular black patches below dorsolateral stripe on each side of body, no pale spots on each side of body. Dorsal surfaces of limbs brownish grey with dark transverse bands. Dorsal surface of tail greyish white with distinct dark transverse bands.

Ventral surface of head white with distinct grey reticulated pattern. No gular spot. Ventral surfaces of body and limbs greyish white with no pattern, ventral surface of tail greyish white with indistinct dark transverse bands.

Variations.

The variations of metrical characteristics of the type series are provided in Table 2 . Other variations are as follows: the transverse bands on the dorsal surface of head and the stripes posteroinferior to the eye are more indistinct in all paratypes; the skin fold under nuchal crest is more weak, no skin fold under dorsal crest, and the dorsolateral stripes are indistinct, pale grey in the female paratype.

Comparisons.

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. differs from D. brevipes (Gressitt, 1936), D. chapaense (Bourret, 1937), D. fasciatum (Mertens, 1926), D. hamptoni (Smith, 1935), D. luei (Ota, Chen & Shang, 1998), D. makii (Ota, 1989), D. menghaiense Liu, Hou, Wang, Ananjeva & Rao, 2020, D. micangshanense (Song, 1987), D. ngoclinense (Ananjeva, Orlov & Nguyen, 2017), D. polygonatum Hallowell, 1861, D. swinhonis ( Günther, 1864), and D. yunnanense (Anderson, 1878) by the presence of a transverse gular fold (vs. absence).

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. differs from D. dymondi (Boulenger, 1906), D. panlong Wang, Che & Siler, 2020, D. slowinskii (Rao, Vindum, Ma, Fu & Wilkinson, 2017), D. varcoae (Boulenger, 1918), and D. swild Wang, Wu, Jiang, Chen, Miao, Siler & Che, 2019 by having concealed tympana (vs. exposed).

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. differs from D. angustelinea , D. aorun , D. batangense (Li, Deng, Wu & Wang, 2001), D. bowoense Wang, Gao, Wu, Siler & Che, 2021, D. brevicauda (Manthey, Denzer, Hou & Wang, 2012), D. daochengense , D. flavilabre Wang, Che & Siler, 2020, D. formosgulae Wang, Gao, Wu, Dong, Shi, Qi, Siler & Che, 2021, D. iadinum (Wang, Jiang, Siler & Che, 2016), D. laeviventre (Wang, Jiang, Siler & Che, 2016), D. limingensis Liu, Hou, Rao & Ananjeva, 2022, D. qilin Wang, Ren, Che & Siler, 2020, D. xinlongense Cai, Zhang, Li, Du, Xie, Hou, Zhou & Jiang, 2022, D. yangi Wang, Zhang & Li, 2022, D. yongshengense , D. yulongense , and D. zhaoermii (Gao & Hou, 2002) by the absence of a gular spot in males in life (vs. presence of a colourful gular spot).

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. differs from D. drukdaypo (Wang, Ren, Jiang, Zou, Wu, Che & Siler, 2019) by having strongly keeled ventral scales of body (vs. smooth or weakly keeled); from D. grahami (Stejneger, 1924) by having relatively longer hind limbs (HLL/SVL 0.65-0.70 vs. 0.61), having a distinct transverse gular fold (vs. feeble), the absence of a gular spot after preservation (vs. presence), and the presence of dorsolateral stripes (vs. absence); from D. kangdingense Cai, Zhang, Li, Du, Xie, Hou, Zhou & Jiang, 2022 by the presence of distinct, dark, hollow, approximately rhomboid patterns between dorsolateral stripes on dorsum (vs. absence) and having greyish white ventrolateral surface of body in males in life (vs. yellow); from D. panchi Wang, Zheng, Xie, Che & Siler, 2020 by the presence of distinct, dark, hollow, approximately rhomboid patterns between dorsolateral stripes on dorsum (vs. absence) and the presence of a skin fold under nuchal crest in females in life (vs. absence); from D. shuoquense Liu, Hou, Rao & Ananjeva, 2022 by having strongly keeled ventral head scales (vs. smooth or weakly keeled), the absence of distinct radial stripes around the eyes (vs. presence), and the presence of skin folds under nuchal and dorsal crests in males in life (vs. absence); from D. splendidum (Barbour & Dunn, 1919) by having strongly jagged dorsolateral stripes in males (vs. smooth); and from D. vela (Wang, Jiang & Che, 2015) by having discontinuous nuchal and dorsal crests and skin folds in males in life (vs. continuous nuchal and dorsal crests on continuous skin fold).

Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. is phylogenetically sister to and most similar in morphology characteristic and colouration to D. flaviceps ; however, Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. can be differentiated from the latter by having a relatively shorter tail (TAL/SVL 1.61-1.78 vs. 1.88-2.09 in males, 1.55 vs. 1.73-2.17 in females), having relatively shorter hind limbs (HLL/SVL 0.66-0.70 vs. 0.72-0.80 in males, 0.65 vs. 0.70-0.81 in females), having a smaller ratio of head width to head length (HW/HL 0.66-0.75 vs. 0.76-0.84 in males, 0.63 vs. 0.71-0.78 in females), having a greater ratio of head depth to head width (HD/HW 0.80-0.85 vs. 0.70-0.78 in males, 0.87 vs. 0.75-0.83 in females), having relatively shorter fourth toes (T4L/SVL 0.16-0.18 vs. 0.18-0.21 in males, 0.16 vs. 0.17-0.21 in females), and having a moderately erected skin fold under dorsal crest in males in life (vs. strongly erected) and the absence of a skin fold under dorsal crest in females in life (vs. presence).

Distribution.

This species is currently known only from its type locality in Danba County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China (Fig. 1 ).

Natural history.

This species is terrestrial, inhabiting the hot-dry valley of the upper Dadu River. There are a few trees and many rocks at the type locality (Fig. 16A, B ). All specimens were collected between 11 and 12 a.m. when they were basking on rock piles.

Figures

Figure 1. Map showing the type localities of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. in Danba County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province (black dot), Diploderma donglangense sp. nov. in Muli County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province (black pentagon), Diploderma jiulongense sp. nov. in Jiulong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province (black triangle), and Diploderma tachengense sp. nov. in Weixi County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan Province (black square), in the Hengduan Mountain Region, southwestern China. The elevation data were obtained from Geospatial Data Cloud (2022).

Figure 4. Dorsal view (upper) and ventral view (lower) of the type series of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. in preservative.

Figure 5. Holotype (KIZ 2022048) of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. in life A dorsal view B lateral view C ventral view D close-up view of the dorsolateral side of the head E close-up view of the ventral side of the head F close-up view of the oral cavity.

Figure 6. Paratypes of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. in life A, B the male paratype KIZ 2022049 C, D the male paratype KIZ 2022050 E, F the female paratype KIZ 2022051

Figure 16. Habitats of the new species A distant view of the type locality of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. B close view of the type locality of Diploderma danbaense sp. nov. C distant view of the type locality of Diploderma donglangense sp. nov. D close view of the type locality of Diploderma donglangense sp. nov. E distant view of the type locality of Diploderma jiulongense sp. nov. F close view of the type locality of Diploderma jiulongense sp. nov G distant view of the type locality of Diploderma tachengense sp. nov. H close view of the type locality of Diploderma tachengense sp. nov.