Diploderma bowoense Wang, Gao, Wu, Siler & Che, 2021

Dong, Wenjie, Li, Ling, Xun, Hao, Gao, Wei, Wang, Kai & Che, Jing, 2024, Extended Descriptions and Revised Diagnoses of Three Recently Described, Little-Known Mountain Dragons (Reptilia: Agamidae: Diploderma) from the Yalong River Valley in Southwest China, Zootaxa 5463 (4), pp. 479-500 : 488-489

Diploderma bowoense Wang, Gao, Wu, Siler & Che, 2021

Newly collected materials. KIZ 50994 , 50996 , 50997 , 51003 , adult males ; KIZ 50993 , 50998 , 50999 , 51000 , 51001 , 51002 , adult females ; KIZ 50995 , 51004 , female subadults from Bowo Village , Muli Zangzu Autonomous County, Sichuan Province, China, collected in September 2022 .

Revised diagnosis. Diploderma bowoense can be diagnosed based on a combination of the following morphological characters: (1) body size small, SVL 45.6–53.7 mm in males, 48.7–63.0 mm in females; (2) tail length moderate, TAL 189.1%–207.1% SVL in males, 174.0%–195.5% in females; (3) HW 65.1%–71.5% HL; (4) HLL 69.2%–83.6% SVL; (5) nuchal and dorsal crests moderately developed on weak skin folds in males; (6) distinct transverse gular fold present; (7) tympanum concealed; (8) MD 29–44; (9) F4S 15–17; (10) T4S 19–25; (11) PTY 1–7; (12) PRS 1–6; (13) dorsolateral stripes strongly jagged, Cream Color [Color 12] in males, Sulphur Yellow [Color 80] and faint in females; (14) gular spots present in both sexes, smaller in females, Light Chrome Orange [Color 76] in live males, Dark Spectrum Yellow [Color 78] in live females, absent after preservation; (15) inner lips, oral cavity, and tongue all Light Flesh Color [Color 250]; and (16) distinct vermiculate stripes present on ventral surface of the head.

Extended variation. Details of the morphological variation are shown in Tables 2 and 3 . The variation of body size in females exceeds previous observation (SVL 52.6–54.2 mm vs. 48.7–63.0 mm; TAL 93.2–96.8 mm vs. 84.8–110.7 mm). However, there is a tendency for females to have a smaller relative trunk length than previously described (TRL 44.4%–55.3% SVL vs. 53.9%–55.3%). In addition, the relative lengths of limbs in both sexes exhibit a higher degree of variation compared to the original description (FLL 45.2%–55.5% SVL vs. 45.2%–45.4% in males, 44.4%–56.1% vs. 44.4%–45.7% in females; HLL 69.2%–83.6% SVL vs. 72.6%–75.6% in males, 71.6%– 81.5% vs. 74.6%–78.6% in females).

For the pholidosis, the updated count for T4S has a higher upper limit (18–21 vs. 18–25). Furthermore, higher variations are observed in MD (29–44 vs. 40–44), PTY (1–7 vs. 3–7) and PRS (1–6 vs. 3–6). Regarding coloration, the female specimen KIZ 50993 shows a faint and small gular spot ( Fig. 3 A 2 ), whereas the other specimens exhibit more pronounced patterns. Additionally, a male sample collected from the same locality displays an inconspicuous gular spot ( Fig. 3 A 1-b ; this sample was utilized in other studies, and no specimen remained), indicating that the saturation of the gular color is variable among males.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic relationships among members of the genus Diploderma inferred using mitochondrial ND2 gene (1032 bp). Three types of nodal supports (Bayesian posterior probability / SH-aLRT test / ultrafast bootstrap) are mapped onto the topology from Bayesian Inference analyses, where “–” indicate low support. Supports of nodes with all three support values below the threshold values (0.95, 80, 95 for Bayesian posterior probability, SH-aLRT test, and ultrafast bootstrap, respectively) are not displayed on the tree. Terminal nodes that unify each recognized species are all strongly supported. GenBank accession numbers of newly collected specimens are shown in bold. Photos by Wenjie Dong, Ling Li, and Kai Wang.

FIGURE 2. Live male of D. panchi (A; KIZ 038777) and female of D. panlong (B; KIZ 039796) from the vicinity of the type localities of each species. Photos by Wenjie Dong.

FIGURE 3. Comparisons of the gular coloration of males (1) and females (2) among D. bowoense (A; A1-a, KIZ 50996; A2, KIZ 50993), D. kangdingense (B), D. xinlongense (C), D. panchi (D; D1, KIZ 038776) and D. panlong (E; E2, KIZ 039795) in life. Variations of gular coloration in D. bowoense and D. kangdingense are shown (a: high saturation, b: low saturation). B1-b, B2, C1, C2 taken from Cai et al. (2022b); Other photos by Wenjie Dong and Ling Li.