Ngo Van Tri's Lady Butterfly Lizard
• Leiolepis ngovantrii Grismer & Grismer 2010
Abstract
A new asexual species of Leiolepis is described from Binh Chau – Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve, Xuyen Moc district Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam to where it is believed to be endemic. Leiolepis ngovantrii sp. nov. differs from all sexual species of Leiolepis by lacking males and from all asexual species by having nine rows of enlarged keeled scales across the forearm and 37–40 subdigital lamellae beneath the fourth toe. Phylogenetic inference based on 700 base pairsof the mitochondrial ND2 region, placed L. ngovantrii sp. nov. among the currently described asexual species and was used to assess the maternal ancestors of the remaining asexual species. Both maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses recovered L. guttata as the maternal ancestors of L. guentherpetersi, L. boehmei, and L. ngovantrii sp. nov., and L. boehmei as the maternal ancestor to L. triploida.
Key words: asexual, Leiolepis, maternal, ngovantrii, new species, taxonomy, Vietnam
Distribution of all species of Leiolepis: with colored circles representing the samples used in the phylogenetic analysis. * indicate asexual species.
Maternal Ancestors: Leiolepis ngovantrii (a) and the maternal ancestors: L. guttata; (b) female, (c) male – from Binh Chau – Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve, Ba Ria Vung Tau Province, Vietnam.
Grismer, J.L. and Grismer, L.L. 2010. Who’s your mommy? Identifying maternal ancestors of asexual species of Leiolepis Cuvier, 1829 and the description of a new endemic species of asexual Leiolepis Cuvier, 1829 from Southern Vietnam. Zootaxa. 2433: 47–61. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2010/f/z02433p061f.pdf
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