Taxonomic Assessment of Acanthosaura lepidogaster sensu lato (Reptilia: Agamidae) in China Through Extensive Sampling

Abstract

We studied Acanthosaura lepidogaster sensu lato in China and included sequences of mitochondrial COI gene fragments from tissues sampled from multiple localities covering almost the entire distribution range of A. lepidogaster sensu lato in China. Integrating the sequences from Vietnam on GenBank, phylogenetic analyses revealed six well-supported lineages within A. lepidogaster sensu lato. Morphological analysis revealed some non-significant differences among these lineages, however, there are relatively great genetic distances among them, and their distributions do not overlap. Therefore, we suggest that the six lineages be regarded as separate species, corresponding to A. lepidogaster sensu stricto, A. brachypoda, A. hainanensis, A. longicaudata, A. phongdienensis, and A. rubrilabris, respectively.