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Podarcis hispanicus (STEINDACHNER, 1870)

IUCN Red List - Podarcis hispanicus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaLacertidae, Lacertinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
SubspeciesPodarcis hispanicus hispanicus STEINDACHNER 1870
Podarcis hispanicus cebennensis GUILLAUME & GENIEZ in FRETEY 1986
Podarcis hispanicus sebastiani (KLEMMER 1964) 
Common NamesE: Iberian Wall Lizard
G: Spanische Mauereidechse
D: Spaanse Muurhagedis 
SynonymLacerta oxycephala var. hispanica STEINDACHNER 1870: 336
Lacerta muralis fusca var. hesperica SCHREIBER 1912
Lacerta hispanica — SCHREIBER 1912
Podarcis muralis var. hispanica — BOULENGER 1920: 259
Lacerta hispanica — MERTENS & MÜLLER 1940
Lacerta hispanica — KLEMMER 1959
Lacerta hispanica — TRUTNAU 1975
Podarcis hispanica — ENGELMANN et al 1993
Podarcis hispanica — SCHLEICH, KÄSTLE & KABISCH 1996: 437
Podarcis hispanicus — BÖHME & KÖHLER 2005
Podarcis liolepis — GENIEZ et al. 2008
Podarcis hispanica hispanica — GEMEL et al. 2019

Podarcis hispanicus cebennensis GUILLAUME & GENIEZ in FRETEY 1986
Podarcis hispanicus cebennensis — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008
Podarcis hispanicus cebennensis — BERRONEAU 2010: 68
Podarcis liolepis cebennensis — MAYER 2015

Podarcis hispanicus sebastiani (KLEMMER 1964)
Lacerta muralis sebastiani KLEMMER 1964
Podarcis hispanicus sebastiani — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008 
DistributionPortugal, Spain (incl. Columbrete Islands), Gibraltar, S France

hispanica: restricted to SE Spain; Type locality: Mount Agudo, near Murcia (SE Spain), restricted by Mertens and Müller (1928). Also restricted to Monteagudo (not Monte Agudo), province of Murcia by Geniez 2007.

sebastiani: Mt. Urgull and the island of Santa Clara (off San Sebastian, The Basque Country, Spain) (Bea et al., 1986).

cebennensis: SW France and North of Catalonia, Spain.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: NMW 16087:1,2, NMW 16088:1-11
Syntypes: MNHN-RA 1986.0966-0970, MNHN-RA 1986.0971-0973 and MNHN-RA 1986.0974-0977 [cebennensis]
Holotype: SMF 59995 [sebastiani] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: A small lizard with a very flattened head (Table S2). Generally, it lacks the mas-seteric plate. Dorsum brown. In most lizards, there is a con-tinuation of light dorsolateral stripes and dark stripes along parietal scales of the head. Normally (more than 83% of indi-viduals), vertebral line is present and in the majority of cases, bi or even trifurcated (Table S3 and Figure S2). Belly with white colour, even if more than 30% of individuals can show a yellowish colour, in some cases covering the base of the tail (Figure S2). In 25% of individuals, blue ocelli are present in outer ventral scales. From 56 to 73 dorsal scales (Geniez et al., 2007, mention lizards with a minimum of 44 dorsal scales.) (from Bassitta et al. 2020). 
CommentSubspecies: PEREZ-MELLADO in SALVADOR 1998 has invalidated Podarcis hispanica cebennensis and P. h. sebastiani. P. vaucheri has been elevated to species status. These authors also elevated Podarcis hispanica atrata (BOSCÁ, 1916) to full species status, but few recent authors seem to have accepted this decision. P. h. atrata is considered as a synonym of P. liolepis by more recent authors (e.g. Mayer 2015). Mayer also doesn’t recognize sebastiani.

Synonymy: partly after TIEDEMANN et al. 1994.

Podarcis hispanica is a genetically (Kaliontzopoulou et al. 2011) and morphologically (Carretero 2008; Kaliontzopoulou et al. 2012) very diverse species. In fact, P. bocagei and P. carbonelli are nested within the P. hispanica clade based on DNA sequence data (PINHO et al. 2005).

Pérez-Mellado (1981) separated the greenish Bocage wall lizard P. bocagei Seoane, 1884, a species endemic to NW Iberia, from the sympatric P. hispanica. Guillaume (1987) suggested this NW Iberian P. hispanica to be its ‘lusitanica’ form. Pérez-Mellado and Galindo (1986) grouped all Iberian forms under the nominal subspecies, including P. h. atrata, but leaving P. h. vaucheri as a subspecies exclusive to NW Africa.

Biometry clearly splits Podarcis hispanica into two different types (Sá-Sousa et al. 2002). Differences in scalation between the two types were not clear, but multiple correspondence analyses showed that different chromatic patterns occur in each type: one presented dark dorsal patterns (e.g. reticulated, eyeled, striped) and whitish-pearly belly, while the other showed green or yellow-brown patterns and yellow-orange belly. These two morphotypes constitute different molecular lineages and have different ranges of distribution. A recent morphological examination of the entire clade of P. hispanica revealed very extensive variation within mitochondrial lineages and no diagnostic traits (Kaliontzopoulou et al. 2012).

Distribution: see map in Caeiro-Dias et al. 2018. Not in Morocco (Martínez et al. 2019, and pers. comm. 18 Jan 2021) or elsewhere in North Africa (fide lacerta.de). 
EtymologyNamed after the occurrence of the species in Spain. 
References
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