1999 Asiatic Herpetological Research Vol. 8, pp. 90-101 Two New Subspecies of Trapelus agilis Complex (Sauria: Agamidae) From Lowland Southwestern Iran and Southeastern Pakistan Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani Department of Zoology, Gbteborg University, Box 463, SE 405 30, Goteborg, Sweden, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract.-Based on conducting long-term excursions and carrying out extensive field work in various parts of the Iranian Plateau and studying preserved (museum) material including the syntypes of Olivier's Agama agilis, and paralectotypes of Boulenger's Agama isolepis, two new subspecies of the wide-ranging Asian ground agamid Trapelus agilis complex are described from the lowland southwestern Iran and southeastern Pakistan (and adjoining northwestern India) respectively. The former of the new subspecies has conventionally been considered as belonging to T. a. agilis, and the latter to T. a. isolepis. They are distinguishable from the other subspecies of T. agilis complex by having several distinctive morphological characteristics. The distinctiveness of both subspecies is confirmed according to the author's previous extensive studies on this complex using uni-and multivariate analyses of morphological characters. Both subspecies mainly occur as geographical isolates in the periphery of the main range of the complex, and both have mainly been separated from the central continuum (= T. a. agilis) by eco-geographical barriers and are almost entirely restricted in distribution to the lowlands, desert and semi-desert regions with high annual temperature. A taxonomic and biogeographic account as well as a key to subspecies of T. agilis complex are presented. Key words.-Trapelus agilis complex, T a. khuzistanensis, T a. pakistanensis. New subspecies, Agamidae, Lowland southwestern Iran, Southeastern Pakistan, Systematics, Distribution, Biogeography. Introduction The, taxonomically, controversial ground agamid Trapelus agilis is a wide-ranging species complex dis-tributed from extreme southwestern Iran (ca 31° N, 47° E) to eastern Kazakhstan and western China (ca 48° N, 83° E) (Fig. 1 ), encompassing numerous local populations (Rastegar-Pouyani, 1998). Traditionally, this complex has been divided into three subspecies; Trapelus agilis agilis (Olivier, 1804), T. a. sanguino-lentus (Pallas, 1814), and T a. isolepis (Boulenger, 1885) (e.g., Anderson, 1974: Welch, 1983; Wettstein, 1951). The latter two subspecies are sometimes regarded as full species by some authors (e.g., Anan-jeva, 1981; Ananjeva and Tsaruk, 1987: Boulenger. 1885; Moody, 1980; Nikolsky, 1915; Zhao and Adler, 1993). On the other hand, Anderson (in press) places all different forms of T. agilis complex under the inclusive name "agilis" and believes that without a firm statistical ground, it is not advisable to divide the complex into separate taxonomic entities. In a series of studies, using uni-and multivariate statistics, the author analysed geographic variation in T. agilis complex, synonymized T. a. isolepis (Bou-lenger) with T. a. agilis (Olivier), designated a new type locality as "terra typica designata" (central Ira-nian Plateau, about 1 10 km southeast of Esfahan city) Figure 1 . Geographic distribution of Trapelus agilis complex. (□) = 7erra typica designata (central Iranian Plateau, about 1 10 km southeast of Esfahan city) (Fig. 1 ), and showed that T. agilis complex consists of four distinct taxonomic entities (subspecies) and that the traditional tri-partite division of the complex, to a great extent, does not portray the actual phenetic pat-terns of geographic variation (Rastegar-Pouyani, in press, unpublished manuscript). The four distinct sub-species identified are as follows: T. a. agilis (Olivier, 1804) is distributed in the central Iranian Plateau, central and southern Afghani-stan, and southwestern Pakistan. Populations of this
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