Diploderma limingense, 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 limingense sp. nov.

Figs 3 , 4 , 5

Holotype.

KIZ2022014, adult male, collected on 21 April 2022 by Shuo Liu from Liming Village, Liming Township, Yulong County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China (27°2′0″N, 99°40′42″E, 2300 m elevation).

Paratypes.

KIZ2022013, KIZ2022015, KIZ2022017, three adult males, collecting information the same as the holotype.

Etymology.

The specific epithet refers to Liming Township, where the new species was discovered.

Diagnosis.

Diploderma limingense sp. nov. can be diagnosed from congeners by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: (1) body size medium, SVL 55.6-56.8 mm in males; (2) tail relatively long, TAL/SVL 1.92-2.09 in males; (3) head moderately wide, HW/HL 0.71-0.74 in males; (4) limbs relatively long, FLL/SVL 0.47-0.52 in males, HLL/SVL 0.74-0.82 in males; (5) MD 45-48; (6) F4S 15-16, T4S 21-22; (7) tympanum concealed; (8) nuchal and dorsal crest scales feebly developed, no skin folds under nuchal and dorsal crest scales in males; (9) distinct transverse gular fold present; (10) ventral head and body scales strongly keeled; (11) ventral head scales heterogeneous in size; (12) gular spot present in males, yellowish-white in life; (13) dorsolateral stripes jagged in males, light yellow in life; (14) ventral surfaces of body, limbs and tail light brick red in males in life; (15) five radial stripes around the eye on each side; (16) inner lips bright yellow, tongue light orange, remaining oral cavity mostly light flesh colour in life.

Description of holotype.

Adult male, SVL 56.2 mm; tail relatively long, TAL 117.5 mm, TAL/SVL 2.09; limbs relatively long, FLL 26.5 mm on left side, FLL/SVL 0.47, HLL 41.8 mm on left side, HLL/SVL 0.74. Head relatively robust, HW/HL 0.74, HD/HW 0.85; snout moderately long, SEL/HL 0.36. Rostral elongated, bordered by five small postrostral scales; dorsal head scales heterogeneous, all strongly keeled; indistinct Y-shaped ridge on dorsal snout. Nasal oval, separated from first supralabial by single row of scales; loreals small, keeled; suborbital scale rows 4/3, 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 8/8, feebly keeled. Mental pentagonal; IL 9/9; enlarged chin shields 4/5, smooth, first one contacting IL on each side, remaining ones separated from IL by two rows of small scales; ventral head scales homogeneous in size, smooth or weakly keeled; distinct transverse gular fold present; gular pouch weakly 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 roughly forming four longitudinal rows from neck to pelvis on each side of body. Nuchal and dorsal crests continuous, scales of nuchal and dorsal crests approximately same in size and shape; no skin fold under nuchal and dorsal crests; MD 45. Dorsal limb scales strongly keeled, homogeneous on fore-limbs and heterogeneous on hind limbs; F4S 15/16, T4S 22/22. Ventral body scales approximately parallel, almost homogeneous, all strongly keeled, VN 63. Ventral limb scales parallel, small on fore-limbs and larger on hind limbs, 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 brownish-grey. A distinct black transverse band anteriorly and an indistinct black transverse band posteriorly present between orbits on dorsal surface of head. Lateral surfaces of head brownish-grey. Five brownish-black radial stripes around eye on each side. Upper lips greyish-white. Inner lips bright yellow, tongue light orange, remaining oral cavity mostly light flesh colour.

Dorsal surface of body brown. A light yellow jagged dorsolateral stripe present from neck to pelvis on each side of body. Some brownish-black triangular patches distributed along vertebral line between dorsolateral stripes from neck to base of tail, all of which pointing posteriorly. Some yellowish-white spots scattered below dorsolateral stripe on each side of body. Dorsal surfaces of limbs greyish-brown with indistinct dark transverse bands. Dorsal surface of tail brownish-grey with some indistinct dark transverse bands.

Ventral surface of head greyish-white. A roughly triangular, yellowish-white gular spot present on posterior central part, many grey stripes forming reticulated pattern present on other region of ventral head. Ventral surfaces of body, limbs and tail light brick red with no patterns.

Variations.

The variations of morphological character of the type series are provided in Table 2 . The variations of colouration in life are very small: the paratype KIZ2022013 has few yellowish-white spots below dorsolateral stripe on each side of body, except for this, all other paratypes closely resemble the holotype.

Comparisons.

From species of Diploderma which are only distributed on East Asian islands, Diploderma limingense sp. nov. differs from D. brevipes (Gressitt, 1936), D. luei (Ota, Chen & Shang, 1998), D. makii (Ota, 1989), D. polygonatum Hallowell, 1861 and D. swinhonis ( Günther, 1864) 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 limingense sp. nov., Diploderma limingense sp. nov. differs from D. chapaense (Bourret, 1937), D. fasciatum (Mertens, 1926), D. hamptoni (Smith, 1935), D. menghaiense Liu, Hou, Wang, Ananjeva & Rao, 2020, D. micangshanense (Song, 1987), D. ngoclinense (Ananjeva, Orlov & Nguyen, 2017) and D. yunnanense (Anderson, 1878) by the presence of a transverse gular fold (vs. absence); from D. dymondi (Boulenger, 1906), D. varcoae (Boulenger, 1918), by having concealed tympana (vs. exposed); from D. grahami (Stejneger, 1924) by having a much longer tail (TAL/SVL 1.92-2.09 vs. 1.64) and a distinct transverse gular fold (vs. feeble); and from D. splendidum (Barbour & Dunn, 1919) by having jagged dorsolateral stripes in males (vs. smooth).

From species of Diploderma which occupy distributions relatively close to that of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. in the Hengduan Mountain Region, Diploderma limingense sp. nov. differs from D. panlong Wang, Che & Siler, 2020, D. slowinskii , (Rao, Vindum, Ma, Fu & Wilkinson, 2017) and D. swild Wang, Wu, Jiang, Chen, Miao, Siler & Che, 2019 by having concealed tympana (vs. exposed); from D. angustelinea Wang, Ren, Wu, Che & Siler, 2020, D. aorun Wang, Jiang, Zheng, Xie, Che & Siler, 2020, D. bowoense , D. batangense (Li, Deng, Wu & Wang, 2001), 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. yangi Wang, Zhang & Li, 2022, D. yulongense and D. zhaoermii (Gao & Hou, 2002) by having a yellowish-white gular spot in males in life (vs. chartreuse, blue, green, lilac, orange or yellow); 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. flaviceps (Barbour & Dunn, 1919) by the presence of a colourful gular spot in males in life (vs. absence) and no skin fold under dorsal and nuchal crests in males (vs. strongly developed and erected); from D. panchi Wang, Zheng, Xie, Che & Siler, 2020 by having bright yellow inner lips in life (vs. inner lips flesh colour); and from D. vela (Wang, Jiang & Che, 2015) by having feebly developed crests without strongly erected crest scales or skin fold in males in life (vs. distinctively erected crest scales on continuous, well-developed skin fold).

Diploderma limingense sp. nov. is phylogenetically sister to D. qilin and D. brevicauda , but Diploderma limingense sp. nov. can be differentiated from D. qilin by having bright yellow inner lips and light orange tongue in life (vs. both inner lips and tongue light flesh colour) and from D. brevicauda by having a relatively longer tail in males (TAL/SVL 1.92-2.09 vs. 1.40-1.84) and more mid-dorsal crest scales (MD 45-48 vs. 34-43).

Distribution.

This species is known only from the type locality, Liming Township, Yulong County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China (Fig. 1 ).

Natural history.

All specimens were collected between 9 and 11 a.m. on the ground in coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest and there was no water body nearby (Fig. 12A, B ). No female or juvenile was found. The population density of this species was moderate and as the habitats of this species not being threatened. According to IUCN Criteria, we recommend listing this new species as Least Concern (LC).

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 3. Dorsal view (top) and ventral view (bottom) of type series of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. in preservative.

Figure 4. Holotype (KIZ 2022014) of Diploderma limingense 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 5. Paratypes of Diploderma limingense sp. nov. in life A dorsolateral view of the paratype KIZ 2022013 B ventral view of the paratype KIZ 2022013 C dorsolateral view of the paratype KIZ 2022015 D ventral view of the paratype KIZ 2022015.

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.