Podarcis liolepis (BOULENGER, 1905)
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Podarcis liolepis
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| Higher Taxa | Lacertidae, Lacertinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Catalonian Wall Lizard, Columbretes Wall Lizard G: Columbretes Mauereidechse D: Columbretes Muurhagedis |
| Synonym | Lacerta muralis var. liolepis BOULENGER 1905 Podarcis hispanica atrata (BOSCÁ, 1916) Podarcis muralis var. liolepis — BOULENGER 1920: 256 Lacerta atrata columbretensis EISENTRAUT 1930 Lacerta atrata mancolibrensis EISENTRAUT 1930 Lacerta bocagei liolepis — MERTENS & MÜLLER 1940 Lacerta bocagei columbretensis — EISENTRAUT 1949: 57 Lacerta bocagei atrata — EISENTRAUT 1949: 130 Lacerta bocagei liolepis — EISENTRAUT 1949: 57 Podarcis hispanica atrata — SALVADOR 1986: 77 Podarcis hispanica atrata — BAUER & GÜNTHER 1995 Podarcis hispanica atrata — PÉREZ-MELLADO in SALVADOR 1998 Podarcis atrata — CASTILLA et al. 1998 Podarcis atrata — OLIVERIO et al. 2000 Podarcis atrata — ARNOLD et al. 2007 Podarcis atratus — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008 Podarcis liolepis — RENOULT et al. 2010 Podarcis liolepis — SPEYBROECK et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | SE Spain (Columbretes Island, off Castellón), Andorra, France Type locality: Valencia atrata: Type locality: Les Ferreres/Columbreten (Spain) mancolibrensis: Type locality: Mancolibre/Columbreten columbretensis: Type locality: Columbrete Grande |
| Reproduction | oviparous |
| Types | Syntypes: BMNH 1946.9.1.33-35 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: a member of the Podarcis hispanicus complex characterized by the combination of the following characters: masseteric shield and dark vertebral stripe frequently present but most often discontinuous, dark vertebral stripe never splits near its anterior part, generally lack of yellow coloration on the belly and under tail, pale dorsolateral stripes wider than the dark supradorsolateral stripes except in uniformly coloured individuals. Dorsum generally brown or greyish but often green in some populations from the southernmost parts of the range. Belly and undertail white, salmon-pink or brick red, never yellowish (but females can have yellow under the throat). When present, combination of a dark vertebral stripe and a distinct masseteric shield on one or two sides excludes all other taxa in this complex except P. carbonelli berlengensis and some TYP1 specimens (in which the dark vertebral stripe would be limited to the anterior part of the back). In addition, TYP1 (both 1A and 1B lineages, see Pinho et al. 2006) differs from P. liolepis by contrastingly white or pale dorsolateral stripes (usually less contrasting in P. liolepis, rarely white, sometimes absent) which are regularly and strongly dashed in males and some females (less regularly fragmented in P. liolepis) or continuous in the other females, and narrower than the black supradorsolateral stripes in both sexes (as wide as or wider than the black supradorsolaterals in P. liolepis). Those P. liolepis specimens that lack a dark vertebral stripe need to be separated from the other taxa by additional characters. TYP2 (which never shows a dark vertebral stripe) also differs from liolepis by the presence of a yellowish coloration on the rear belly and under tail and by wider dark supradorsolateral stripes (which are usually made of scattered marbling in males, more continuous in females) and the typically green or greenish coloration of the dorsum of males in spring. Specimens of P. hispanicus sensu stricto lacking a split dark vertebral stripe can be distinguished from small, flattened P. liolepis lacking temporal shields by the yellowish coloration on the undertail present in most P. hispanicus sensu stricto, by their different head shape with more flattened head and more pointed snout and their paler iris. Iberian populations of P. vaucheri (which rarely shows a dark vertebral stripe) often have a yellow or yellowish belly and dark supradorsolateral stripes that are usually either absent or wider than the pale dorsolateral stripes. P. bocagei has a blunt, rounder snout and a green dorsum contrasting with brown flanks (males in spring). P. carbonelli has a deeper head and more pointed snout and green flanks (often contrasting with brown dorsum) in males in spring. These last two taxa also lack a dark vertebral stripe in most specimens. (Renoult et al. 2010) |
| Comment | Type not in BMNH fide P. Campbell, pers. comm., 9 July 2014. Synonymy: Mayer listed atrata under liolepis. Castilla et al. (1998) elevated this form to full species status but few authors seem to have accepted this decision. Distribution: see map in Caeiro-Dias et al. 2018. Börner (2019) discusses possibly introduced populations in Germany. |
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