Two new species of the Ophisops microlepis (Squamata: Lacertidae) complex from northwestern India with a key to Indian Ophisops

ABSTRACT

We describe two new species of the lacertid genus Ophisops based on a series of 19 specimens from semi-arid habitats in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in northwestern India, provide a description of Ophisops microlepis sensu stricto, and a key to Indian Ophisops. Ophisops pushkarensis sp. nov. and Ophisops kutchensis sp. nov. are allied to Ophisops microlepis and can be diagnosed from all other Indian Ophisops by the fusion of the lower and upper eyelids, their large body size (snout to vent length > 50 mm), and ≥ 50 scales around midbody. They differ from O. microlepis and each other in the number of scales around midbody, the number of dorsal scales, subtle colour pattern differences, as well as uncorrected mitochondrial sequence divergence (6–9%). These are some of the only known endemic reptiles in these semi-arid landscapes and indicate that many other such habitats may harbour endemic biodiversity.

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KEYWORDS:

• Aravalli Range
• cytochrome b
• Eremiadinae
• Kutch
• tropic of cancer

Acknowledgements

Tarun Khichi, Caleb Daniel, Aniruddha Datta-Roy, IP Bopanna, Suthirto Dutta and Kamlesh Maurya helped with fieldwork, V. Deepak collected one of the paratypes of O. pushkarensis. AK thanks Vandana and Khusboo Vyas for great food and hospitality during fieldwork. We thank Pratyush Mohapatra, Kaushik Deuti,  PGS Shety and the Director, Zoological Survey of India for providing us with photographs of the holotype of Ophisops microlepis. We thank the Forest Departments of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for permits and logistic support. This work was supported in part by grants to Praveen Karanth (DST Grant SR/SO/AS-57/2009), UR (2012/21/06/BRNS). IA was supported by a bridging postdoc at NCBS and US National Science Foundation grant EF 1241885 (subaward 13-0632) to Aaron M Bauer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India [2012/21/06/BRNS]; Department of Science and Technology, Government of India [SR/SO/AS-57/2009]; National Science Foundation, USA [EF 1241885].