Bronchocela burmana Blanford, 1878

Zug, George R., Mulcahy, Daniel G. & Vindum, Jens V., 2017, Resurrection of Bronchocelaburmana Blanford, 1878 for the Green Crested Lizard (Squamata, Agamidae) of southern Myanmar, ZooKeys 657, pp. 141-156 : 151

Bronchocela burmana Blanford, 1878 Figure 3

Bronchocela burmana Blanford, 1878, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1878(6): 141.

Holotype.

Adult ZSI 5337 collected from '...near Tavoy’. We have not examined this specimen as it was not available to us.

Definition.

A Bronchocela lizard with a short nuchal crest of six to nine erect triangular crest scales; no middorsal crest of raised scales on trunk. Snout-vent length of adults range from 80 to 94 mm with tail length 240 to 360% of snout-vent length; limbs slender, forelimbs 42-52% of SVL, hindlimbs 86-97% of SVL; digits long and slender with third finger slightly longer than fourth finger, fourth toe distinctly longer that third toe; head medium sized (25-27% of SVL); head with distinct canthal ridge, narrow triangular shaped from dorsal view, length> width ≈ height and approximately 26 % of SVL; moderately large eye (OrbD/HeadL ~26-28%) and about twice diameter of tympanum (continuous with temporal surface).

General description.

Detailed metric and scalation features are presented above in the Results section, also Table 2. Bronchocela burmana is a slender green lizard with long tail, usually 2.5-3.5X snout-vent length. In spite of its 80 to 94 mm body length, its slenderness and thin legs give it a delicate appearance and make it immediately recognizable among the other lizards of southern Tanintharyi.

In life, Bronchocela burmana appears uniformly green (Fig. 2). Preservation changed the overall coloration to light olive but highlights a light rufous vertical bar in the temporal area.

Distribution.

Bronchocela burmana is presently confirmed for only southern Tanintharyi Division, Myanmar (Fig. 1). The type-locality is given as Tavoy, now Dawei; however, two years of surveys in both the dry and wet seasons at the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve, just north of Dawei, did not confirm the presence of this species in the former Tavoy area (approximately 350 km N of Lenya). The morphological description of Bronchocela cristatella in Chan-ard et al.'s field guide (2015: p. 94) appears to be a composite of Bronchocela burmana and Bronchocela cristatella . As noted in the preceding section, we interpret their distribution map also to be a composite of the two species’ occurrence in western Thailand. We suggest that the two species are allopatric with Bronchocela burmana in the north, likely north of the Isthmus of Kra and Bronchocela cristatella in the south. Taylor’s description and photograph of Bronchocela cristatella (1963) are definitely of that species and are plotted (Fig. 1) to confirm its occurrence in southern-most Thailand.

Etymology.

Blanford did not explain his choice of burmana . His selection seems obvious as it was the first Bronchocela from British Burma and distinctly different from Bronchocela cristatella and the other species recognized at that time.