Japalura, Gray, 1853

Wang, Kai, Che, Jing, Lin, Simin, Deepak, V., Aniruddha, Datta-Roy, Jiang, Ke, Jin, Jieqiong, Chen, Hongman & Siler, Cameron D., 2019, Multilocus phylogeny and revised classification for mountain dragons of the genus Japalura s. l. (Reptilia: Agamidae: Draconinae) from Asia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185, pp. 246-267 : 262

Within Japalura , relationships of sampled taxa are largely resolved ( Fig. 2). Interestingly, despite morphological similarity between J. kumaonensis and J. tricarinata ( Wang et al., 2018b) , J. kumaonensis is most closely related to J. variegata (0.99/69; Fig. 2). As many of the Himalayan regions lack detailed surveys for Japalura diversity, including north-east India, Bhutan, Nepal, and north-western Bangladesh, many congeners are still poorly studied. In fact, several recognized species are known from a few vouchered specimens only with no genetic samples (e.g. J. dasi , J. major and J. sagittifera ). Not only may these remote regions harbour undescribed diversity, but also, given the wide variation in ornamentation observed among populations ( Bhosale, Das & Manthey, 2013; Wang et al. 2018a), understudied taxa such as J. andersoniana , J. kumaonensis , J. tricarinata and J. variegata may represent species complexes and contain cryptic diversity. Future research should focus on the collection of additional, vouchered genetic data of these poorly studied lineages and close examination of Japalura populations across the Himalayan region.