Pseudocalotes viserion Grismer, Quah, Wood, Anuar, Muin, Davis, Murdoch, Grismer, Cota & Cobos, 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Grismer, L. Lee
name: Quah, Evan S. H.
name: Wood, Perry L.
name: Anuar, Shahrul
name: Muin, Abdul
name: Davis, Hayden R.
name: Murdoch, Matthew L.
name: Grismer, Jesse L.
name: Cota, Michael
name: Cobos, Anthony J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Agamidae
Pseudocalotes
Pseudocalotes viserion

description: Pseudocalotes viserion sp. nov.
Viserion’s False Garden Lizard Figs. 3, 6, 10
Holotype. Adult female LSUHC 12227 collected on 26 March 2015 by Evan S. H. Quah at 1000 hrs crossing the radar tower road at Ulu Kali at Genting Highlands, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia (03° 26.166 N 101° 47.021 E; 1754 m in elevation).
Paratype. Adult male LSUHC 12141 found dead on the radar tower road at Ulu Kali at Genting Highlands, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia (03° 26.12 N 101° 47.345 E; 1750 m in elevation) by L. Lee Grismer, Perry L. Wood, Jr., Hayden R. Davis, Matthew L. Murdoch, Brandon R. Burch, and Anthony J. Cobos.
Diagnosis. Pseudocalotes viserion sp. nov. can be separated from all other species of Psuedocalotes by having a combination of three postrostrals; 10 circumorbitals; four or five canthals; 5–7 superciliaries; rostral and nasal in contact; supralabials contacting nasal; six or seven supralabials; seven or eight infralabials; two or three postmentals; three enlarged chinshields; 47 or 48 smooth, flat, gular scales; weak transverse gular and antehumeral folds; two enlarged scales between the ear and eye; an enlarged upper and lower posttemporal; an enlarged supratympanic; no enlarged postrictals; 7–9 nuchal crest scales lacking gaps and not extending beyond midbody; weakly keeled and plate-like scales on flanks; 35–38 scales around midbody; ventrals smaller than dorsals; 22 or 23 subdigital lamellae on fourth finger; 26 or 27 subdigital lamellae on fourth toe; preaxial scales on third not modified; subdigital lamellae not unicarinate; HW/HL 0.62; no white marking below the eye; dewlap in males yellow; and no elbow or knee patches. These characters or a subset of them are scored across all species in Table 3.
Description of holotype. Adult female SVL 71 mm; head relatively large, triangular in lateral and dorsal profile; HW/HL 0.62; HL/SVL 0.30; interorbital and frontal regions flat; snout not elongate but convex, sloped anteriorly, canthus rostralis sharp, composed of four scales; supraorbital scales enlarged, keeled; single row of 10 enlarged, circumorbital scales bordering medial margins of supraorbital region, posteriormost of series enlarged and tuberculate; five, flat, imbricate superciliary scales; scales of orbit (surrounding eye) granular; three enlarged postorbital scales, posteriormost scale acuminate, keeled; dorsal, head scales weakly acuminate; rostral low, rectangular, bordered laterally by first supralabials, dorsolaterally by nasal scale, and posteriorly by three smaller scales; external nares in slightly elevated single, rectangular, large, nasal scale; three enlarged, acuminate, median scales in prefrontal region; parietal, occipital, and upper postorbital region covered with slightly enlarged, irregularly shaped, weakly acuminate scales; an enlarged, keeled parietal scale on right side of midline followed by a large, raised occipital scale; enlarged parietal on left side of midline broken up and adjacent occipital scale not as large or raised as the corresponding scale on right; interparietal small, bearing eyespot; temporal scales irregular in size; single enlarged, raised postorbital scale; two, raised, enlarged, keeled, posttemporal scale; tympanum naked, scales on dorsal margin not enlarged; six (R,L) supralabials; nine (R,L) postnasal-supraorbital scales; mental triangular; two large postmentals in medial point contact forming first in a series of three enlarged chinshields separated from infralabials by three anteriorly and 10 posteriorly rows of smaller scales; 7 (R), 8(L) infralabials; gular scales smooth, flat, directed posteromedially, 47 at midline; dewlap small; transverse gular and antehumeral folds weak.
Seven, large, lanceolate nuchal scales beginning on occiput, reaching maximum height on nape, tapering to a low, vertebral crest on body composed of a single row of keeled, slightly enlarged scales that extend onto base of tail where they are largest; body round in cross-section; dorsal body and flank scales weakly keeled, subimbricate, rectangular, arranged in indistinct, transverse rows; flank scales larger than dorsal body scales, plate-like; ventrals smaller than dorsals; scales of pectoral region, belly, and precloacal regions strongly keeled; limbs moderate in stature, covered dorsally with keeled scales; five digits on pes and manus; hind limbs larger, more robust than forelimbs; subdigital lamellae of toes I, II, IV, and V bicarinate; 22 lamellae beneath fourth finger; 27 lamellae beneath fourth toe; preaxial scales of third toe unmodified; tail laterally compressed, not swollen at base, covered with keeled scales, 1.68 times SVL.
Coloration in life (Fig. 10). Dorsal ground color of body and tail dull yellow; labials, lateral regions of throat, proximal region of brachia and anterior portion of flanks white; ground color of top of head light-green, randomly mottled with small, irregularly shaped, dark markings; four very faint, wide, diffuse, dark vertebral patches between forelimb and hind limb insertions extending onto dorsal margins of flanks; ground color of forelimbs yellow-green, mottled with darkly edged scales; ground color of hind limbs dingy green, limbs faintly banded; wide, diffuse faint bands on anterior region of tail fading posteriorly; gular region beige, bearing a series of faint, diffuse, obliquely oriented, brown stripes in lateral margins; gular pouch yellow; subcaudal region gray; rest of venter beige, generally immaculate; bottoms of hands and feet slightly darker.
Variation (Fig. 10). The male paratype (LSUHC 12141) resembles the female holotype (LSUHC 12227) in aspects of color pattern but the overall ground color is brown, not dull-yellow. It also has a greatly swollen tail base. Differences in scalation are presented in Table 5.
Distribution. Pseudocalotes viserion sp. nov. is known only from the radar tower road at Ulu Kali at Genting Highlands, Pahang Peninsular Malaysia (Fig. 2).
LSUHC LSUHC LSUHC LSUHC LSUHC ZRC FMNH Etymology. The specific epithet viserion refers to this species’ resemblance in form and color to the yellowish dragon, Viserion—one of three dragons born in the Dothraki Sea and commanded by Daenerys Targaryen—the Mother of Dragons—in George R. R. Martin’s fictional work Game of Thrones.
Natural history. The holotype (LSUHC 12227) was collected during mid-morning at 1000 hrs under broken cloud cover as it was crossing the radar tower road at Ulu Kali at Genting Highlands. The paratype (LSUHC 12141) was found freshly killed on the same road at 1500 hrs. This short stretch of road runs along the crest of Ulu Kali and winds through a mossy cloud forest between 1,700 and 1,800 m in elevation (Fig. 11). The holotype was a gravid female that had just ovulated indicating that the reproductive season of this species extends through March.
Comparisons. Pseudocalotes viserion sp. nov. is readily differentiated from all other species of Pseudocalotes except it sister species P. flavigula by having enlarged, plate-like scales on the flanks. It can be separated from P. flavigula by having larger, plate-like scales on the flanks (compare Figs. 10 and 12) as evidenced by having fewer midbody scale rows (35–38 versus 41–44); having more gular scales (47 or 48 versus 40–46); fewer subdigital lamellae on the fourth finger (22 or 23 versus 22–28); and fewer subdigital lamellae on the fourth toe (26 or 27 versus 26–30) (Table 5). There appears to be less yellow coloration in the gular region of P. f l a v i g ul a in that the yellow does not extend onto the region of the throat anterior to the forelimb insertions as it does in P. viserion sp. nov. and the skin between the scales is white in P. flavigula as opposed to being yellow in P. viserion sp. nov. (Figs. 10,12). Additionally, these two species share a 22% uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence between them. Differences from other species are listed in Table 3.
description: Published as part of Grismer, L. Lee, Quah, Evan S. H., Wood, Perry L., Anuar, Shahrul, Muin, Abdul, Davis, Hayden R., Murdoch, Matthew L., Grismer, Jesse L., Cota, Michael & Cobos, Anthony J., 2016, Dragons in the mist: three new species of Pseudocalotes Fitzinger (Squamata: Agamidae) from the sky island archipelago of Peninsular Malaysia, pp. 461-490 in Zootaxa 4136 (3) on pages 480-484, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4136.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/256755