Bonn zoological Bulletin Volume 60 Issue 1 pp. 25-34 Bonn, May 20 1 Studies on African Agama IX. New insights into Agama finchi Bonnie et al., 2005 (Sauria: Agamidae), with the description of a new subspecies Philipp Wagner 1 - 2 *, Wolfram Freund 1 , David Modry 3 - 4 , Andreas Schmitz 5 & Wolfgang Bohme 1 1 Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany 2 Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085, USA 3 Dept. of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Palackeho 1-3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic 4 Biology Center, Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic 5 Department of Herpetology and Ichthyology, Museum d'histoire naturelle, CP 6434, CH-1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland "corresponding author: philipp.wagner.zfmk@uni4oonn.de. Abstract. We present new information on the distribution and morphology of Agama finchi from eastern Africa. For the first time, material from three different populations (including the type locality) was available and the question of a pos- sible subspecies in Uganda was positively answered. Based on the distribution pattern of Agama species groups, a gen- eral distribution pattern is discussed. Key words. Reptilia, Sauria, Agamidae, Agama finchi, Agama finchi ssp. n., Africa, Kenya, Uganda, DR Congo, Ethiopia. INTRODUCTION Cursorily, the taxonomy and relationships between east- ern African Agama species were thought to be well known, but after intensive research on these species, it became ob- vious that species limits were underestimated and sever- al taxa were described, revalidated or regarded as syn- onyms (Bohme et al. 2005; Wagner 2007; Wagner et al. 2008a, 2008b; Wagner 2010). Most Agama species occur- ring in eastern Africa seem to be part of a monophyletic group (Wagner et al. unpubl. data). However, the only member of the Agama agama species group occurring in eastern Africa is still A. finchi (Leache et al. 2009). This species was described by Bohme et al. (2005) from Mal- aba in western Kenya close to the Ugandan border. These authors also mentioned a population from Murchison Falls in Uganda, but specimens from this population were on- ly known from photographs. They differed from topotyp- ical Agama finchi in the colouration of the forelimbs and until recently, it was not possible to confirm these photo- graphs with voucher specimens. Additionally, further in- formation given by Bohme et. al. (2005) show the occur- rence of A. finchi at the 'Yale River in Uganda', but it was not possible to trace this locality. Probably the locality refers to the western Kenyan Yala River, which was in the 'Uganda' province of East Africa before 1926 (pers. comm. Stephen Spawls, 25.1.2011). A. finchi is a small lizard and is characterized by its bi- coloured red and black tails, scarlet-red heads and fore- limbs and the velvet-black bodies of adult males. The throat colouration is uniform pale reddish, with a pattern of longimdinal dark reddish lines. The females are differ- ent in colouration from other Agama species as they pos- sess a uniform brown body with reddish to yellow dorso- lateral bands. In both sexes, a white to yellowish supral- abial line is usually obvious. Nevertheless, differences in colouration between the specimens from Uganda and topo- typical A. finchi are obvious, since the former possess body-like coloured forelimbs. However, without vouch- er specimens, it was so far not possible to assess the sta- tus of this population. Currently, only few Agama species are known from Ugan- da. Agama lionotus elgonis Lonnberg, 1922 is known to occur in the Mt. Elgon region, and most probably Agama finchi, described from an area close to the border to Ugan- da, should occur there. Spawls et al. (2002) also mentioned a wide distribution of Agama agama in Uganda, but these records should be referred to Agama lionotus since A. a. agama is restricted to Central Africa (Wagner et al. 2009). © Biodiversity Heritage Library, http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/; www.zoologicalbulletin.de; www.biologiezentrum.at