Sitana


Sitana is a genus of lizards, collectively known as the fan-throated lizards, in the family Agamidae. They are found in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. The genus comprises fourteen species, including several recently discovered ones, two of which are from Sri Lanka. In 2016, a new genus named Sarada was erected, consisting of one former Sitana species and two newly described ones. Sarada is the sister genus of Sitana. Together they form a clade whose sister group is Otocryptis.

Description

Sitana is genus of small to medium-sized lizards. They are ground dwellers, primarily eating insects but also mollusks and seeds.
Males measure in snout–vent length, and females measure. In an example of convergent evolution, males have prominent dewlaps, similar to anoles, which they use in communication during the breeding season. The dewlap varies in size, from small to large, depending on the species. Females lack the dewlap.

Species

There are fifteen species that are listed here alphabetically:
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Sitana bahiri Amarasinghe, Ineich & Karunarathna, 2015Bahir's fan-throated lizardSri Lanka
Sitana devakai Amarasinghe, Ineich & Karunaratna, 2014Devaka's fan-throated lizardSri Lanka, Tamil Nadu of India,
Sitana dharwarensis Ambekar, Murthy, & Mirza 2020India
Sitana fusca Schleich & Kästle, 1998dark sitanaNepal.
Sitana gokakensis Deepak, Khandekar, Chaitanya, & Karanth, 2018Gokak fan-throated lizardIndia.
Sitana kalesari Bahuguna, 2015India.
Sitana laticeps Deepak and Giri, 2016broad-headed fan-throated lizardIndia.
Sitana marudhamneydhal Deepak, Khandekar, Varma & Chaitanya, 2016India
Sitana ponticeriana Cuvier, 1829Pondichéry fan-throated lizardIndia
Sitana schleichi Anders & Kästle, 2002Suklaphantah sitanaNepal.
Sitana sivalensis Schleich, Kästle & Shah, 1998; endemic to NepalSiwalik sitanaNepal.
Sitana spinaecephalus Deepak, Vyas and Giri, 2016spiny-headed fan-throated lizardIndia
Sitana sushili Deepak, Tillack, Kar, Sarkar, & Mohapatra, 2021Sushil's fan-throated lizardIndia
Sitana thondalu Deepak, Khandekar, Chaitanya, & Karanth, 2018Nagarjuna Sagar fan-throated lizardIndia
Sitana visiri Deepak, 2016palm leaf fan-throated lizardIndia