Abstract
Recent fieldwork in southern Tanintharyi revealed the presence of a small Green Crested Lizard in the wet evergreen forest. We generated mtDNA sequence data (ND2) that demonstrates that this population’s nearest relative is Bronchocela rayaensis Grismer et al., 2015 of Pulau Langkawi, northwestern Peninsular Malaysia and Phuket Island. Morphologically the Burmese Bronchocela shares many features with Bronchocela rayaensis, which potentially would make this recently described Thai-Malay species a synonym of Bronchocela burmana Blanford, 1878; however, we interpret the genetic and morphological differences to reflect evolutionary divergence and recommend the recognition of both species.
Highlights
Bronchocela is a light weight among agamid lizards, rivaling Draco in the lightness and slenderness of its body and limbs
Our sequences were aligned with the ND2 samples from Grismer et al (2015), the single new individual from Phuket Island, Thailand (Grismer et al 2016), and another specimen in GenBank (AF128497) initially identified as B. cristatella (Macey et al 2000a) and AF128495, initially identified as Aphaniotis fusca because these specimens were reported as being switched in GenBank (Zug et al 2006)
Our samples ranged from 93.4–95.0% identical to the B. rayaensis specimens in GenBank (KR053115– KR053116, KY498356)
Summary
Bronchocela is a light weight among agamid lizards, rivaling Draco in the lightness and slenderness of its body and limbs. The first mention of a Bronchocela in Burma (Myanmar) was in 1878 by Blanford He recognized that a Burmese specimen differed strikingly from B. cristatella and the other species described to that time and named this taxon B. burmana. Diong and Lim’s (1998) review of B. cristatella is the first formal use of Bronchocela with a full explanation of their decision to revive the generic name. Their decision was based on a confirmation of Scott Moody’s data in his unpublished dissertation demonstrating that cristatella was not closely related to other members of the Calotes clade
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