Podarcis guadarramae subsp. lusitanicus Geniez, Sá-Sousa, Guillaume, Cluchier & Crochet, 2014, subsp. nov.
Creators: name: Geniez, Philippe
name: Sá-Sousa, Paulo
name: Guillaume, Claude P.
name: Cluchier, Alexandre
name: Crochet, Pierre-André
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Lacertidae
Podarcis
Podarcis guadarramae
Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus

description: Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus subsp. nov.
Holotype: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle MNHN 2012.0263 (formerly BEV.3987), holotype by present designation; an adult male collected 1 km past Âncora towards Póvoa de Varzim (south of Caminha, Portugal, district of Viana do Castelo) [41.794°N / 8.864°W], 30 m a.s.l. in May 1985 by C.P. Guillaume, P. Geniez, U. Mathis and J. Magraner (Fig. 7). Paratypes: RMNH. RENA 35253, 35297, 35317, males from a quarry in Coto de Caza San Martin near Ardia (Spain, province of Pontevedra) [42.4553°N / 8.8744°W]; EBD.16033, female from Hío, near Cangas (Spain, province of Pontevedra) [42.271°N / 8°.830°W]; EBD.9247, 9252, males, EBD.9249- 9251, females, from Pouso da Serra, Donón (province of Pontevedra) [42.275°N / 8.847°W]; BEV.6299-6307, males, BEV.6308, female, from Vila Real (Portugal, district of Vila Real) [41.310°N / 7.839°W].
Etymology. the adjectival epithet lusitanicus refers to the Lusitanians (latin Lusitani), an ancient pre-Roman people inhabiting the centre and east of present-day Portugal (and adjacent area of Spain).
Diagnosis. This is the lineage referred to as Podarcis hispanicus “ type 1A” by Pinho et al. (2006, 2007), Carretero (2008) and Kaliontzopoulou et al. (2011, 2012). A typical wall lizard of moderate size (adult males 41.5 mm to 62.5 mm, mean 51.5, adult females 40.0 mm to 60.0 mm, mean 48.7), very similar to Podarcis guadarramae guadarramae (see Fig. 8) and often not safely identifiable based on present knowledge. On average has a slightly more flattened appearance with a flatter head (Fig. 9 B); a lower number of femoral pores (13 to 21 for males, average 16.5, 12 to 19 for females, average 15.6) and lower number of dorsal scales (47 to 66 for males, average 56.9, 46 to 61 for females, average 53.4); “ guadarramae striped pattern” rare in females, when present pale dorsolateral stripes are narrower and less obvious than in P. g. guadarramae (compare Fig. 10 B with Fig. 5 B), dark supradorsolateral stripes usually wider, leaving a narrower area of pale coloration in the middle of the back, in many adult males the dark supra-dorsolateral stripes can be very wide and very fragmented, invading the dorsal region, where they create a reticulated, dappled or ocellated pattern of light green, white or creamy spots on black back devoid of stripes (this pattern is typical to P. g. lusitanicus and seems to be unknown in other taxa of the Podarcis hispanicus complex, see Figs. 7 & 8 B), pale spots inside the light dorsolateral stripes more contrasting and isolated as they are often positioned on a darker background, green-backed individuals not rare especially in mountains but also along the Atlantic coast. Diagnostic positions in the DNA sequence of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) gene relative to other lineages of the P. hispanicus complex include an A at position 10905, C at position 11395 and A at position 11448 (positions numbered according to the P. muralis mitochondrion complete genome GenBank accession number NC_ 011607).
Range and ecology (Fig. 2): only in north-western Iberia: northern third of Portugal, reaching the Serra da Estrela southwards (cf. also “ Podarcis hispanicus 1” in Sá-Sousa 2000), whole part of the Galicia region except the north, and north-western part of Castilla-y-León, reaching its northern limits near Ezaro (E of Cape Finisterre) along the Galician coast. Eastern limits poorly known but currently include the western slopes of the Puerto de Manzanal near Manzanal del Puerto (Léon, Spain) in the south and Oriñon (Santander, Spain) along the northern coast of Spain. The north-western limit of the range of “ Podarcis hispanicus ” (sensu lato) in Sá-Sousa & Pérez- Mellado (2002) coincides with the limit of the range of Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus (see also Galán 1986 for details on the northern-western limit in Spain). Pérez-Mellado (2010) provides a detailed account on the distribution in Portugal (as Podarcis hispanicus “morfotipo 1”: all Portuguese populations of type 1 should be this taxon). Its ecology is very similar to the ecology of P. g. guadarramae but it reaches sea level along the coasts. Competition with P. bocagei in the northwestern part of its range often excludes it from terrestrial and man-made habitats (stone walls for example), restricting it to natural rocky habitats in these areas (pers. obs., see also Galán 1986). On small islands off Galicia the two species usually exclude each other (Arntzen & Sá-Sousa 2007).
Geographical variation. Populations in the north-eastern part of the range of Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus, including most of the Cantabrian Mountains area, roughly from Medulas and Carrucedo in Spain and eastern piedmonts of the Serra de Montesinho in north-east Portugal to Picos de Europas, especially north of Caín in the Ruta del Cares, in Spain, are on average smaller (41.5 to 58 mm of SVL for males, average 49.6, 40 to 57 mm for females, average 47.2), with a lower number of dorsal scales (47 to 63 for males, average 54.5, 46 to 58 for females, average 52.2) and a larger number of transverse rows of ventral plates (25 to 30 for males, average 27.3, 29 to 35 for females, average 30.9); coloration is often quite distinctive, with a more finely dappled or punctuated and less contrasted dorsal pattern with reduced dark supradorsolateral stripes, pale dorsolateral stripes less contrasted (see Fig. 11).
Situation in contact zones with other taxa. Largely sympatric with Podarcis bocagei in the north-west of its range (see Loureiro et al. 2010 for Portugal and Pleguezuelos et al. 2002 for Spain). Reproductive isolation relative to this species is nearly complete but a few individuals of recent mixed ancestry have been detected, as well as some evidence of ancient introgression (Arntzen & Sá-Sousa 2007; see also Pinho et al. 2007, 2008). Sympatric, sometimes syntopic, with P. carbonelli in the north of Portugal (pers. obs., see also Loureiro et al. 2010). Globally parapatric with P. v i re s c en s in Portugal (Sá-Sousa 2000, Harris & Sá-Sousa 2001, Sá-Sousa et al. 2002) but a few syntopic populations have been described (see Pérez-Mellado 2010). In spite of this, Pinho et al. (2008) detected no trace of nuclear gene flow between P. g. lusitanicus and P. v i re s c en s. Sá-Sousa et al. (2002) found specimens with type 2 morphological characters in the Serra da Estrela but as this population is far from the contact zone with this species, it is unlikely that this results from introgression. We have no information on contact zones with P. g. guadarramae or P. liolepis.
Comparison with other species. See guadarramae and virescens accounts.
Description of the holotype. An adult male (Fig. 7) measuring 52 mm of snout-vent length, 11.4 mm of pileus length, 5.5 mm of pileus width, 5.1 mm of head height (giving a height / length head ratio of 0.93), and having the following scalation features: 60 longitudinal rows of dorsal scales at mid-body, 32 gular scales counted along a line from the contact between the fourth pair of maxillary scales to the collar, 27 transversal rows of ventral plates from the collar to the anal plates, 16 femoral pores on each side, 23 subdigital lamellae beneath the fourth toe, 93 scales on the temporal area, one small but well-defined masseteric shield on each side. Coloration on the live animal: iris whitish; pileus strongly black-marked; dorsum mainly black with a vestigial pale central area showing as a row of pale green spots along mid-dorsum, a row of pale cream spots along the dorsolateral area and flanks black with numerous large creamy spots; tail mainly regenerated, with basis not strongly widened and coloration similar to the body for the original tail, mainly pale brown with a black longitudinal lateral stripe for the regenerated part; central and median ventral plates uniform, marginal ventral plates with triangular black marks. Ventral coloration on the live specimen has not been photographed. Coloration of the preserved specimen is similar but pale areas on the back and flanks now have various shades of light grey.
description: Published as part of Geniez, Philippe, Sá-Sousa, Paulo, Guillaume, Claude P., Cluchier, Alexandre & Crochet, Pierre-André, 2014, Systematics of the Podarcis hispanicus complex (Sauria, Lacertidae) III: valid nomina of the western and central Iberian forms, pp. 1-51 in Zootaxa 3794 (1) on pages 14-20, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3794.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/285981