During our collecting trip to Guangxi in 2016, we collected ten specimens of the genus
Takydromus from the suburb of Guilin, northeastern Guangxi, South China, and found that they did not belong to any currently known species. Here, we described this new species,
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During our collecting trip to Guangxi in 2016, we collected ten specimens of the genus
Takydromus from the suburb of Guilin, northeastern Guangxi, South China, and found that they did not belong to any currently known species. Here, we described this new species,
Takydromus guilinensis sp. nov., based on morphological and mitochondrial DNA (
CO1 and cyt
b) data. This new species is a sister taxon to
T. intermedius with a
p-distance of 0.070 in
CO1 and 0.080 in cyt
b. These two
p-distances exceed not only the minimum value (0.067) between
T. septentrionalis and
T. stejnegeri but also the minimum value (0.079) between
T. intermedius and
T. yunkaiensis. Morphologically, this new species differs from other currently recognized
Takydromus species from the same clade, more evidently in the longitudinal rows of dorsal scales, transverse rows of scales at the mid-body and mensural variables. The description of
Takydromus guilinensis sp. nov. increases the total number of
Takydromus species to 25, of which 16 can be found in China.
Takydromus guilinensis sp. nov. is currently known only from Guilin, Guangxi, South China, where it is sympatric with the other four
Takydromus species (
T. septentrionalis,
T. kuehnei,
T. sexlineatus and
T. intermedius).
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