V. Deepak

Description of a new species of Sitana Cuvier, 1829 from southern India

A new species of Sitana to the ponticeriana group is described herein from southern Tamil Nadu, India. Sitana marudhamneydhal sp.nov. is most similar to Sitana visiri, from which it differs in body scalation and dewlap size. Much like Sitana visiri, the breeding of this species coincides with the North-East monsoon rains (October to December), an adaptation related to its geographic location which receives higher rainfall during the North-East monsoon than the South-West monsoon.

A systematic revision of Calotes Cuvier, 1817 (Squamata: Agamidae) from the Western Ghats adds two genera and reveals two new species

Lizards of the genus Calotes are geographically restricted to South Asia, Indo-China and parts of Southeast Asia. The greatest diversity of the genus is from the biodiversity hotspots in South Asia: Western Ghats (Peninsular India), Sri Lanka and Indo-Burma. Here, we present a systematic revision of members of the genus Calotes from Peninsular India using a combination of molecular phylogeny, geographical distribution and morphological characters. We show that Calotes from the Western Ghats is paraphyletic and consists of three major clades, one of which is widely distributed in South and Southeast (SE) Asia, while the others are restricted to Peninsular India. The Peninsular Indian clade is composed of two sister clades: Psammophilus, with a wider distribution and a second clade, composed of two extant species, Calotes rouxii and Calotes ellioti and two new species, all restricted to the Western Ghats region. Based on morphological differences, we retain the generic status of Psammophilus and assign its sister clade to a new genus Monilesaurus gen. nov. and transfer the following species, C. rouxii and C. ellioti, to this new genus. We also provide diagnoses and descriptions for two new species recognized within Monilesaurus gen. nov. In addition, Calotes aurantolabium from the Western Ghats was observed to be deeply divergent and to share a sister-relationship with the clade composed of Calotes, Monilesaurus gen. nov., and Psammophilus. Based on its phylogenetic position and morphological attributes, we assign this species to a new genus Microauris gen. nov. These new discoveries highlight the evolutionary significance of the Western Ghats in housing novel lizard diversity.

Ahaetulla nasuta anomala (Annandale, 1906) (Squamata: Colubridae), resurrected as a valid species with marked sexual dichromatism

In this paper we resolve the taxonomic confusion related to Ahaetulla nasuta anomala (Annandale, 1906). On the basis of molecular and morphological data, we remove it from the synonymy of Ahaetulla nasuta (Lacépède, 1789) and reinstate it as a valid species-Ahaetulla anomala. This species is sexually dichromatic, males are green and females are brown in colour. Though the brown morph morphologically resembles Ahaetulla pulverulenta (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) there are significant morphological and genetic differences between these two species. Additional information on taxonomy, natural history and distribution of the species is provided.

Fine Scale Habitat Selection in Travancore Tortoises (Indotestudo travancorica) in the Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats

Abstract Travancore Tortoises (Indotestudo travancorica) are endemic to the Western Ghats, south India. Landscape level surveys showed no clear habitat selection by the species. Therefore, we used radiotelemetry to study home-range size and fine-scale spatial movement habitat use of four tortoises from 2008–10. Minimum convex polygon home-range sizes of four tortoises varied between 5.2 and 34 ha. Tortoises spent a majority of their time in evergreen forest edge that had bamboo–lantana–grass. Eighty-two percent of the locations in the evergreen forest, and 95% of the locations in the bamboo–lantana–grass habitat, were at the edge of these habitats. Therefore at a fine scale, tortoises used the forest edge, possibly because it provided opportunities for foraging and thermoregulation.