Trapelus mutabilis, PALLIDUS

Wagner, Philipp, Melville, Jane, Wilms, Thomas M. & Schmitz, Andreas, 2011, Opening a box of cryptic taxa - the first review of the North African desert lizards in the Trapelus mutabilis Merrem, 1820 complex (Squamata: Agamidae) with descriptions of new taxa, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (3), pp. 884-912 : 896

TRAPELUS MUTABILIS PALLIDUS

( REUSS, 1834) STAT. NOV.

1834 Agama pallida Reuss, Mus. Senckenberg., Frankfurt am Main 1: 38. – Terra typica: Ober-Ägypten.

1834 Agama loricata Reuss, Mus. Senckenberg., Frankfurt am Main 1: 40. – Terra typica: peträisches Arabien.

1834 Agama nigrofasciata Reuss, Mus. Senckenberg., Frankfurt am Main 1: 40. – Terra typica: Nubien, Ober-Ägypten und Arabien.

1834 Agama leucostygma Reuss, Mus. Senckenberg., Frankfurt am Main 1: 44. – Terra typica: Ober-Ägypten.

1848 Trapelus aegyptius Duvernoy , in Cuvier, Règne animal, Rept. 54. – Terra typica: Egypte.

Holotype: SMF 10007 ( Fig. 6).

Diagnosis: Small to medium-sized species of the genus with an average ratio TL/SVL of 1.1. Gular pouch absent. Ear opening more or less round, usually with a smooth margin, but often spiny scales are present. Dorsal scales small, equal in size, forming a matrix with intermixed larger scales. Ventral scales smooth.

Trapelus mutabilis pallidus is distinct from the nominate form in possessing a higher count of scale rows around midbody and in having a matrix of uniform small dorsal scales with some intermixed larger scales.

Taxonomic note: Even though T. pallidus is often recognized as a distinct species or synonym of T. mutabilis by other authors (e.g. Schleich et al., 1996; Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008), both results from morphology (Table 7) and genetics ( Table 5) support its validity as a subspecies of T. mutabilis .