Monilesaurus ellioti
Creators: name: Varadaraju
name: Ganesh, S. R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Agamidae
Monilesaurus
Monilesaurus ellioti

description: Monilesaurus ellioti (Günther, 1864)
(Fig. 1)
Calotes elliotti amarambalamensis Murthy, “1978” 1979
Calotes ellioti amarambalamensis — Das et al. 1998
Material Examined. Holotype ZSI / SRS/VRL-159; coll. T.S.N. Murthy; 23/11/1979. Note: The holotype was collected in 1979 (Murthy, 1979: 79; also see jar label in Fig. 1a), indicating that the stated year of publication of this work cannot be 1978, as often cited (see Das et al. 1998; Manthey 2008; Pal et al. 2018), but should also be 1979, if not later.
Type locality. Meenmutty (ca. 11.338°N, 76.514°E; 1236 m asl), New Amarambalam Reserved Forest, Malappuram District, Kerala, India.
Redescription of Holotype (Fig. 1). an adult female, moderately preserved; tail broken, severed portion present alongside in the same jar; habitus fairly slender, tapering; head large, both supraocular ridges shriveled, likely due to preservation artifact; body shriveled in some parts laterally and damaged in some parts ventrally; lateral parts of trunk wrinkled in places; supralabials 10/10; infralabials 10/10; canthus rostralis sharp, distinct; mid-body scale rows 59 in area of intact skin; dorsal and lateral trunk scales lance-shaped, sharp-ended, weakly imbricate; ventral trunk scales very wrinkled; appear to be same sized scales as those on lateral parts of trunk, in places visible; supraciliary spines 2/2; supratympanic spines 1/1; nasal separated from supralabials by 1–2 rows of intervening scales; ante-humeral fold in front of shoulder and across neck with distinctly smaller scales than on surrounding parts of body, both laterally and ventrally; vertebral crest formed by row of scales demarcated by small spiny scales near neck and forebody, only faintly indicated on mid- to posterior parts of trunk; 4 th toe subdigital scales 26/26; relative digit lengths, fingers: 4>3>2>5>1; toes: 4>3>5>2>1; head length 20.0 mm; head width 10.2 mm; head depth 9.6 mm; eye diameter 6.1 mm; inter-orbital distance 7.7 mm; inter-narial distance 3.0 mm; eye-snout tip distance 8.6 mm; eye-lip distance 1.9 mm; axilla-groin distance 35.1 mm; upper arm length 10.1 mm; lower arm length 8.6 mm; thigh length 17.1 mm; shank length 15.2 mm; snout-vent length 55.8 mm; tail length 110.0 mm; after 45 years in spirit: overall colour drab greyish brown; eyelids, supraocular bulges, jaw angle, temple and labials markedly paler, of a rosy tint; elbow and knee joints markedly paler; digits a lighter shade, with a rusty brownish tint; neck darkened to blackish brown, bordered by series of loose wrinkled folds of skin; limb insertions mildly darkened and wrinkled.
Murthy (1979) distinguished his new subspecies on the basis of its “strikingly different” colour pattern described as “black above with large whitish blotches to form four transverse bars, three on the back and one on the tail, limbs with white bars, the angular black mark on each side of the neck present but less distinct, the suborbital spot has been depressed, throat suffused with white” (Murthy 1979: 79). The reported scale counts (upper and lower labials 10, 10; scale rows around body 59 [Murthy 1979]) of C. ellioti amarambalamensis are within the range of Günther’s (1864) original description, indicating minor variations seen in colouration alone. Murthy (1979) provided no measurements or any other scale counts for the type. Murthy (1981) recorded nine more examples of C. ellioti from the same Meenmutty area in both 1981 and 1983 but did not record any as C. ellioti amarambalamensis. Our examination and redescription of the holotype, and particularly the reaffirmation of the high number of dorsal scale rows, confirms that the subspecies is a junior subjective synonym of M. ellioti (Günther, 1864) and that its holotype likely represents a rare aberrant pattern variant. We have also observed M. ellioti specimens bearing the colour pattern reported by Murthy (1979) (our Fig. 1g), which were one-off individuals among the many ‘normal’ morphotypes.
Murthy (1981) stated that one specimen collected from near Punchakolly (ca. 11.384ºN, 76.380ºE; 200 m asl), which is 10 airline km from Meenmutty, had two white spots, one below the eye and another below the tympanum, but did not consider this variation sufficient for a subspecies description. It is unclear why he considered this pattern variation of lower significance than that exhibited by the holotype of C. ellioti amarambalamensis, since both were noted in just one lizard each, found in broad sympatry, but perhaps the trunk pattern variation was construed as more taxonomically significant than that limited to the head.
The holotype of C. ellioti amarambalamensis has 59 dorsal scale rows and was found at 1236 m asl, values minimally expanding the morphological and geographical characterisations, respectively, of M. ellioti by Pal et al. (2018) who reported a range of 52–58 scale rows and an upper elevation limit of 1000 m asl. However, our scale count is within the upper range limit of 60 (Smith 1935) or 61 rows (Boulenger 1885, 1890) reported by earlier authors and our examination of the holotype confirms earlier, but unsubstantiated assumptions, regarding its allocation to M. ellioti rather than M. montanus.
description: Published as part of Varadaraju & Ganesh, S. R., 2024, Recovery and redescription of holotype of Calotes elliotti [sic] amarambalamensis Murthy, 1979 confirms its synonymy with Monilesaurus ellioti (Günther, 1864) (Squamata: Agamidae), pp. 197-200 in Zootaxa 5551 (1) on pages 198-200, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5551.1.10, http://zenodo.org/record/14389788