Taxonomic revision of the genus Dopasia (Reptilia: Squamata: Anguidae) with descriptions of four new species from China

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Glass lizards of the genus Dopasia are a group of limbless, fossorial reptiles from Asia. Due to their secretive lifestyles, voucher specimens and genetic materials are scarce. These data shortfalls have prevented integrative studies, and the taxonomy of Dopasia suffers from major uncertainties on species validity and cryptic diversity. Particularly, the validity of D. formosensis, D. hainanensis, and D. ludovici remain controversial, and multiple cryptic species await formal descriptions across Asia. Through collaborations among major natural history collections across the globe, we tackle the outstanding taxonomic conundra and revise the taxonomy of Dopasia using an integrative approach for the first time. We show that D. formosensis, D. hainanensis, and D. ludovici can be readily diagnosed morphologically from true D. harti, and they all show considerable genetic divergences with respect to D. harti. Therefore, we resurrect D. formosensis and D. hainanensis and confirm the species validity of D. ludovici. We further confirmed the morphological diagnosis and phylogenetic position of the true D. gracilis for the first time. Accordingly, we confirm the previously identified populations of “D. harti”, “D. ludovici”, and “D. gracilis” from southern China represent four cryptic new species that we describe here. We update the diagnostic key of the genus, highlight the importance of previously neglected morphometric data in the taxonomy of Dopasia, discuss the still-remaining taxonomic issue of the genus and reemphasize the need for more inclusive listing in China’s National List of Protected Wildlife.