Abstract
The morphological and genetic variation of a wide-ranging Secret Toad-headed agama, Phrynocephalus mystaceus that inhabits sand deserts of south-eastern Europe, Middle East, Middle Asia, and western China is reviewed. Based on the morphological differences and high divergence in COI (mtDNA) gene sequences a new subspecies of Ph. mystaceus is described from Khorasan Razavi Province in Iran. Partial sequences of COI mtDNA gene of 31 specimens of Ph. mystaceus from 17 localities from all major parts of species range were analyzed. Genetic distances show a deep divergence between Ph. mystaceus khorasanus ssp. n. from Khorasan Razavi Province and all other populations of Ph. mystaceus. The new subspecies can be distinguished from other populations of Ph. mystaceus by a combination of several morphological features. Molecular and morphological analyses do not support the validity of other Ph. mystaceus subspecies described from Middle Asia and Caspian basin. Geographic variations in the Ph. mystaceus species complex and the status of previously described subspecies were discussed.
Highlights
Toad-headed agamas of the genus Phrynocephalus Kaup, 1825, are distributed from south-eastern Europe and southwest Asia through Middle Asia to Central Asia
The first clade consists of Irainan Ph. mystaceus ssp. from Khorasan Province
Populations from the eastern part of the range including Eastern Kazakhstan and Xinjiang (China) that correspond to the Ph. m. “aurantiacocaudatus” occupy basal position in the clade II, but are not monophyletic and fall into three poorly differentiated subclades: from the environs of Kapchagai, Ili River Valley, and the environs of Lake Balkhash
Summary
Toad-headed agamas of the genus Phrynocephalus Kaup, 1825, are distributed from south-eastern Europe and southwest Asia (including the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula) through Middle Asia to Central Asia (northern and central China and Mongolia). This taxonomically complicated genus currently contains up to 32 species (Uetz and Hošek 2016). Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on mtDNA markers failed to resolve the phylogenetic position of Ph. mystaceus (Pang et al 2003), which led Barabanov and Ananjeva (2007) to consider Megalochilus as a junior synonym of Phrynocephalus. The most recent study proposed to consider Megalochilus as a subgenus of the genus Phrynocephalus (Solovyeva et al 2014)
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