Mecolepis trispinosus

Das, Sunandan, Campbell, Patrick D., Deuti, Kaushik, Bag, Probhat & Raha, Sujoy, 2019, A contribution to the systematics of Salea anamallayana (Beddome, 1878) and S. horsfieldii Gray, 1845 (Squamata: Agamidae: Draconinae), Zootaxa 4563 (3), pp. 563-583 : 570

Sytematic status of Mecolepis trispinosus , M. hirsutus and M. sulcatus

Duméril described three new lizard species, namely Mecolepis trispinosus , M. hirsutus and M. sulcatus in 1851 which were subsequently synonymized with Salea horsfieldii by Günther (1864). From the original description of Duméril (1851) and plates published with a later contribution by the same author ( Duméril 1856), M. trispinosus and M. hirsutus appears to match well with males of S. horsfieldii while M. sulcatus seems to be a good match to female S. horsfieldii . The same conclusions were made by Günther (1864). The type locality of M. trispinosus and M. sulcatus was given by Duméril (1851) as ‘Monts Nilgherry (Indes orient.)’ (Nilgiri hills, India) which is the range of S. horsfieldii. The collection locality of the two syntypes of M. hirsutus, ‘Bengale’, corresponds to West Bengal of north India and Bangladesh and therefore seems to be wrong in all probability. Though the necessity of re-examination of those specimens cannot be negated entirely, we feel that Günther’s decision of relegating them to the synonymy of S. horsfieldii was absolutely correct.