A morphology-based taxonomic revision of Laudakia GRAY, 1845 (Squamata: Agamidae)

Abstract

The former genus Stellio has already been partitioned into Laudakia Gray, 1845 and Acanthocercus Fitzinger, 1849 on the basis of several pieces of evidence. The main objective of this study is to revise Laudakia which recently includes 20 species: L. agrorensis, L. badakshana, L. bochariensis, L. caucasia, L. dayana, L. erythrogaster, L. fusca, L. himalayana, L. lehmanni, L. melanura, L. microlepis, L. nupta, L. nuristanica, L. pakistanica, L. papenfussi, L. sacra, L. stellio, L. stoliczkana, L. tuberculata, and L. wui. More than 600 specimens have been studied with reference to 54 morphological characters which resulted in a detailed descriptive account for each taxon. Agama isozona is recognized as a synonym of L. bochariensis. The latter species itself has been placed in a supraspecific complex consisting of L. himalayana, L. badakshana and L. bochariensis. Laudakia caucasia which has ben lowered and raised several times since its appearance is again identified as a monotypic species by placing L. caucasia triannulata as synonym under L. microlepis. Laudakia fusca was described as a variety of L. nupta but subsequent herpetologists synonymized it or recognized it as full species. According to this study L. fusca should be recognized again as subspecies of L. nupta pending more detailed further research. Moreover, several previous works have indicated that Laudakia is paraphyletic and therefore two new genera are described herein encompassing the stellio- and caucasia-groups.