@article {78093, title = {Two more new Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker, 1860 (Squamata: Gekkonidae)~from Tamil Nadu, India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4729}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jan 29}, pages = {zootaxa.4729.2.6}, abstract = {

Two new species of the gekkonid genus Hemiphyllodactylus are described from mountains of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu, southern India. Hemiphyllodactylus nilgiriensis sp. nov. and H. peninsularis sp. nov. are \> 5 \% divergent in the mitochondrial ND2 gene from each other and members of the H. aurantiacus complex and differ from each other and members of the H. aurantiacus complex in several meristic characters and colouration. The description of these two new species takes the number of Indian Hemiphyllodactylus to six and the number of endemic geckos from Tamil Nadu to 15.

}, keywords = {Animals, Genes, Mitochondrial, India, Lizards, Phylogeny, Records}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4729.2.6}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Bauer, Aaron M and Pal, Saunak and Srikanthan, Achyuthan N and Khandekar, Akshay} } @article {67827, title = {On the systematic status of the genus Oriocalotes G{\"u}nther, 1864~(Squamata: Agamidae: Draconinae) with the description of a new species from Mizoram state, Northeast India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4638}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jul 18}, pages = {zootaxa.4638.4.1}, abstract = {

The montane agamid lizard genus Oriocalotes is currently considered monotypic, represented by the species, O. paulus. The systematic status of this taxon has remained questionable since its initial descriptions in the mid-1800s. A detailed molecular and morphological study was carried out to assess the validity of this genus, and its systematic position within the Asian agamid subfamily, Draconinae. Freshly collected and historical museum specimens from the type locality of O. paulus were examined morphologically, along with additional samples collected from localities in Mizoram state, Northeast India. Utilising newly generated molecular sequences (two mitochondrial and three nuclear genes), combined with those previously published for representative genera from the subfamilies Draconinae and Agaminae, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic trees were constructed. Phylogenetic results suggest that Oriocalotes is part of the widespread South and Southeast Asian radiation of Calotes. Comparative morphological studies (including external morphology, hemipenis and osteology) between Oriocalotes and related genera further support this systematic placement. Oriocalotes is herein regarded as a junior subjective synonym of Calotes. Calotes paulus comb. nov. is also assigned a lectotype and given a detailed redescription based on the lectotype, paralectotypes and additional topotypic material. Furthermore, the specimens collected from Mizoram populations are found to be morphologically and genetically distinct from Calotes paulus comb. nov., and are described herein as a new species, Calotes zolaiking sp. nov.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bayes Theorem, India, Lizards, Osteology, Phylogeny}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4638.4.1}, author = {Giri, Varad B and Chaitanya, R and Mahony, Stephen and Lalrounga, Samuel and Lalrinchhana, C and Das, Abhijit and Sarkar, Vivek and Karanth, Praveen and Deepak, V} } @article {36275, title = {The curious case of Hemidactylus gujaratensis (Squamata: Gekkonidae).}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4388}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Feb 28}, pages = {137-142}, abstract = {

Hemidactylus Oken, 1817 is one of the most speciose genera of the family Gekkonidae with more than 140 described species (Uetz et al. 2016). While this genus naturally occurs across the tropics and subtropics, a substantial part of its distribution also results from human-mediated dispersal. Carranza Arnold (2006) retrieved five broad clades in a global phylogeny of Hemidactylus, one of which has species distributed in tropical Asia. Subsequent work by Bauer et al. (2010) and Bansal Karanth (2010) revealed that the species from tropical Asia fell into two deeply divergent and potentially non-sister sub-clades-one comprising a large radiation confined to peninsular India and Sri Lanka (the Indian radiation, IR), and the other comprising species largely distributed in Southeast (SE) Asia.

}, keywords = {Animals, India, Lizards, Phylogeny, Sri Lanka}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4388.1.11}, author = {Lajmi, Aparna and Datta-Roy, Aniruddha and Vyas, Raju and Agarwal, Ishan and Karanth, Praveen} }