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| Sitana sushili Deepak, Tillack, Kar, Sarkar & Mohapatra, 2021 |
Abstract
We describe a new species of fan-throated lizard of the genus Sitana from the Deccan peninsula of India. The new species is from the Sitana sivalensis clade and can be readily diagnosed morphologically from S. sivalensis, S. fusca and S. schleichi by having the dewlap extending beyond forearm insertion. The new species differs from all other congeners in the combination of morphological characters such as a feebly serrated dewlap with a dark blue line on the throat in adult males (versus a well serrated dewlap with a bright blue patch and orange spots in S. ponticeriana complex), small body size (versus a large body size in S. gokakensis and S. thondalu) and a relatively smaller dewlap size (relatively larger in S. laticeps, S. spinaecephalus, S. dharwarensis, S. gokakensis, S. thondalu, S. marudhamneydhal, S. ponticeriana and S. visiri). The new species was found to be commonly distributed in arid and open habitats as well as in farmlands and plantations in northern Andhra Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh and most parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha states.
Keywords: Reptilia, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, India, Sitana sivalensis complex, taxonomy
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| Two uncollected males of Sitana sushili sp. nov. in combat (note the prominent nuchal crest) photographed in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha. (Photo: Vivek Sarkar) |
Sitana sushili
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| The distribution of Sitana sushili sp. nov. and other species from the Sitana sivalensis complex shown with different symbols. Type localities of each species are marked with a red arrow. Locality numbers correspond to those in Table 1. Note that samples collected from India and labelled here as S. sivalensis are based only on genetic similarity. |
V. Deepak, Frank Tillack, Niladri B. Kar, Vivek Sarkar and Pratyush P. Mohapatra. 2021. A New Species of Sitana (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Deccan Peninsula Biogeographic Zone of India. Zootaxa. 4948(2); 261–274. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4948.2.6
