Genus:

Takydromus DAUDIN, 1802

Species (26):

Takydromus albomaculosus  WANG, GONG, LIU & WANG, 2017

Takydromus amurensis  PETERS, 1881

Takydromus dorsalis  STEJNEGER, 1904

Takydromus formosanus  BOULENGER, 1894

Takydromus guilinensis  GUO, HU, CHEN, ZHONG & JI, 2024

Takydromus hani  CHOU et al., 2001

Takydromus haughtonianus  JERDON, 1870

Takydromus hsuehshanensis  LIN & CHENG, 1981

Takydromus intermedius  (STEJNEGER, 1924)

Takydromus khasiensis  BOULENGER, 1917

Takydromus kuehnei  VAN DENBURGH, 1909

Takydromus luyeanus  LUE & LIN, 2008

Takydromus madaensis  BOBROV, 2013

Takydromus sauteri  VAN DENBURGH, 1909

Takydromus septentrionalis  GÜNTHER, 1864

Takydromus sexlineatus  DAUDIN, 1802

Takydromus sikkimensis  (GÜNTHER, 1888)

Takydromus smaragdinus  BOULENGER, 1887

Takydromus stejnegeri  VAN DENBURGH, 1912

Takydromus sylvaticus  POPE, 1928

Takydromus tachydromoides  (SCHLEGEL, 1838)

Takydromus toyamai  TAKEDA & OTA, 1996

Takydromus ultapaniensis  CHETTRI, MOTHEY, GHATANI, DEEPAK & RAI, 2026

Takydromus viridipunctatus  LUE & LIN, 2008

Takydromus wolteri  FISCHER, 1885

Takydromus yunkaiensis  WANG et al., 2019

Species Typica:

Takydromus sexlineatus  DAUDIN, 1802

Taxonomic notes:

The genus was partly on two, or even three genera. ARNOLD (1997) recognizes only one genus with two subgenera. However, molecular data disprove these subgenera as monophyletic groups.

WERNER MAYER, 2015

Relevant taxonomic literature:

• Arnold, E.N. (1997) -  Interrelationships and evolution of the east Asian grass lizards, Takydromus (Squamata: Lacertidae). -  Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 119 (2): 267-296.    

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  The east Asian lacertid lizard genus, Takydromus, is well-defined but its relationships to other primitive Palaearctic lacertids are still uncertain and, although it has similarities to the lower Miocene Miolacerta. Takydromus does not appear to be identical with this. The 16 or 17 recognizable species are reviewed and a key provided for their identification; the remaining area of uncertainty about species boundaries is the Takydromus sexlineatus group in Assam. A phylogeny for Takydromus is estimated using a data set of 35 morphological characters drawn from external features, skeleton and soft-parts. There are two main constituent clades which may be informally recognized as Takydromus s.s. and Platyplacopus. Platyplacopus is subtropical and perhaps relict, whereas Takydromus ranges from temperature to tropical areas. The two clades have different ranges of eggs per clutch. In both of them, elongate forms that climb-extensively in flimsy vegetation have evolved and have independently acquired similar features that confer performance advantages in this situation. Interestingly, the order of assembly of these features is markedly different.

• Lin, S.M. & Chen, C.A. & Lue, K.Y. (2002) -  Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the grass lizards genus Takydromus (Reptilia: Lacertidae) of East Asia. -  Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 22: 276-288.    

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  Takydromus Daudin is a group of Lacertidae lizards with slender bodies and long tails. Half of the Takydromus spp. are endemic to islands of eastern Asia aligned along the Pacific margin of the East Asian continent. This feature offers a good opportunity to study the effects of glaciations and land connections on the speciation of East Asian fauna. We reconstructed the molecular phylogeny of Takydromus species via the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum-parsimony, neighborjoining, and maximum-likelihood options do not support a two-subgenera scheme of Takydromus and Platyplacopus proposed earlier. In contrast, the phylogeny of Takydromus species on islands fits the sequential separation of island groups influenced by changes in sea level. The hypothesis in our prediction supports the process of vicariant speciation and multicolonization of grass lizards on eastern Asian islands. At least two obvious colonization events were followed by vicariance events. Because the molecular clock of the 12 rRNA gene was not rejected in our model test, it is possible to estimate times of speciation events. As the most isolated and basal species compared to other temperate and subtropical species of Takydromus, the separation period of T. smaragdinus in the central Ryukyus is the crucial point in estimating the evolutionary rate. Quaternary-origin or Tertiary-origin models are proposed and discussed

• Ota, H. & Honda, M. & Chen, S.-L. & Hikida, T. & Panha, S. & Oh, H.-S. & Matsui, M. (2002) -  Phylogenetic relationships, taxonomy, character evolution and biogeography of the lacertid lizards of the genus Takydromus (Reptilia: Squamata): a molecular perspective -  Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 76: 493-509.    

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  Historical relationships were inferred for the oriental lizards of the genus Takydromus Daudin 1802 (Lacertidae) on the basis of DNA sequences. Of the 17 species currently recognized for the genus, 13 species represented by 42 specimens from 29 localities were examined. Maximum-likelihood and maximum-parsimony analyses of data for 829 aligned sites from parts of the mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA genes yielded relationships that, while showing no substantial discrepancy with each other, were strikingly different from a currently prevailing phylogenetic hypothesis from a parsimony analysis of morphological characters. Based on the results of these molecular analyses, supplemented by results of the morphological analysis that offered robust evidence for positions of two additional species (T. khasiensis and T. sylvaticus), the following interrelationships were hypothesized as the most preferred phylogeny: (kuehnei (sexlineatus khasiensis))(tachydromoides ((smaragdinus (sauteri (dorsalis sylvaticus))) (amurensis (((formosanus wolteri) hsuehshanensis)(toyamai (septentrionalis stejnegeri)))))). These interrelationships indicate: (1) invalidity of Platyplacopus Boulenger 1917, which was recently resurrected as a subgenus of Takydromus on the basis of the morphological analysis; (2) homoplasy in states of some morphological characters, such as green dorsal coloration, that were considered as synapomorphs of certain nodes in the morphological analysis; and (3) involvement of the genus in a series of vicariances in both the continental and insular parts of eastern Eurasia. Due to the paucity of available samples, phylogenetic status of T. intermedius and T. haughtonianus remain to be examined in future studies.