Japalura, GRAY, 1853

JAPALURA GRAY, 1853 View in CoL

Etymology: The Latin name ‘ Japalura ’ may be derived from a locality name in India, and the term is feminine gender. We suggest the English common name as ‘Himalayan Dragon’, and the Chinese name as ‘攀蜥’ (pronounced as ‘Pan-Xi’).

Type species: Japalura variegata, Gray, 1853 .

Diagnosis: Lizards of the genus Japalura sensu stricto differ from closely related genera by possessing the following morphological characteristics: (1) head width moderate, HW mostly <70% of HL; (2) nuchal and dorsal crest scales relatively low and thick, not significantly elongated into lanceolate spines, CL/HL<10%; (3) post-orbital and post-occipital spines absent; (4) gular scales mostly homogeneous in size; (5) size of scales on lateral jaw subequal in size across gular region; (6) dorsal scale significantly heterogeneous in size and shape, not regularly imbricate; (7) pair of distinctively enlarged, conical scales on nape above shoul- der absent; (8) paravertebral rows of enlarged scales present on dorsolateral body; and (9) V-shaped ridges present along dorsal midline, formed by enlarged, keeled scales.

Phylogenetic definition: We define Japalura sensu stricto using the maximum crown-clade definition, which includes species that share a more recent common ancestor to Japalura veriegata than Draco volans or Ptyctolaemus gularis .

Included species: Based on our phylogenetic results, we assign the following species to the genus Japalura sensu stricto: J. andersoniana , J. kumaonensis , J. tricarinata and J. variegata . Following our morphological results and proposed morphological diagnoses, we also assign J. dasi , J. major and J. sagittifera into this genus, pending future phylogenetic studies.

Geographic distribution: Members of the genus are distributed along the southern foothills of the Himalayas, including north-eastern Pakistan ( J. kumaonensis and J. major ), northern and north-eastern India ( J. andersoniana , J. kumaonensis , J. major , J. sagittifera , J. tricarinata and J. variegata ), Nepal ( J. dasi , J. tricarinata and J. variegata ), Bhutan ( J. andersoniana , J. tricarinata and J. variegata ), southern parts of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China ( J. andersoniana and J. tricarinata ), and northern part of Myanmar ( J. sagittifera ). Congeners may also be found in north-western Bangladesh ( Fig. 5).