Monilesaurus is a genus of lizards in the draconine clade of the family Agamidae and is a new genus[1] described in 2018.[2] Currently it consists of 4 species, with 2 new species and 2 species split from the genus Calotes.
Geographic range
The genus Monilesaurus is native to the Western Ghats of India.
Species
Below species were split from Calotes:
- Monilesaurus ellioti Günther, 1864 – Elliot’s forest lizard
- Monilesaurus rouxii Duméril & Bibron, 1837 – Roux’s forest lizard, Roux’s forest calotes, forest blood sucker
Below species are described newly under this genus:
- Monilesaurus acanthocephalus Pal, Vijayakumar, Shanker, Jayarajan, & Deepak, 2018 – spiny-headed forest lizard
- Monilesaurus montanus Pal, Vijayakumar, Shanker, Jayarajan, & Deepak, 2018 – montane forest lizard
References
- ^ Pal, Saunak; Vijayakumar, S.P.; Shanker, Kartik; Jayarajan, Aditi; Deepak, V. (2018). “A systematic revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds two genera and reveals two new species”. Zootaxa. 4482 (3): 401–450. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4482.3.1. PMID 30313808.
- ^ “Search Genus Monilesaurus“. The Reptile Database.
External links
- Sandhya Sekar. Kartik Chandramouli (ed.). “[Photo-feature] Meet the new species of dragon lizards from the Western Ghats”. Mongabay.
- Vijay Pinjarkar (September 28, 2018). “Two new species of lizards found in Western Ghats”. The Times of India.