Podarcis virescens GENIEZ, SÁ-SOUSA, GUILLAUME, CLUCHIER & CROCHET, 2014
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Podarcis virescens
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| Higher Taxa | Lacertidae, Lacertinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Geniez’s Wall Lizard |
| Synonym | Podarcis virescens GENIEZ, SÁ-SOUSA, GUILLAUME, CLUCHIER & CROCHET 2014 Podarcis hispanicus “type 2” — PINHO et al. 2006 Podarcis hispanicus “type 2” — PINHO et al. 2007 Podarcis virescens — KWET & TRAPP 2015 Podarcis virescens — SPEYBROECK et al. 2020 |
| Distribution | SC Spain, Portugal Type locality: 1 km past Villanueva de los Escuderos towards Cuenca by the road CUV-7037 (Spain, province of Cuenca) [40.0436°N / 2.2916°W], 1,014 m. elevation. |
| Reproduction | oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022) |
| Types | Holotype: MNHN-RA 2012.0264, formerly BEV.1898, holotype by present designation; an adult male caught by P. Geniez, P.-A. Crochet and O. Chaline on 23rd June 2001, (location in Fig. 12). Paratypes: BEV.1899, 1901, males, BEV.1900, female from Villanueva de los Escuderos, in the village (Spain, province of Cuenca) (40.0417°N / 2.3025°W) (see Fig. 14 for BEV.1900); BEV.1909, 1911-1912, males, BEV.1910, female, from Albalate de Zorita, in the village (NNE. Tarancón, Spain, province of Guadalajara) (40.308°N / 2.845°W) (see Fig. 13 for BEV.1911); BEV.7525, male from the motorway service area 4 km SW. of Ciempozuelos (between Aranjuez and Valdemoro, Spain, province of Madrid) (40.1341°N / 3.6563°W)(see Fig. 15); BEV.10940-941, males from 2.4 km NW. of Torrelaguna (province of Madrid) (40.8404°N / 3.5634°W); BEV.10979, male from San Andres del Congosto, cultivated plaine 500 m east of the village (province of Guadalajara) (40.9994°N / 3.0213°W), 840 m elevation. |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis: This is the lineage referred to as Podarcis hispanicus “type 2” by Pinho et al. (2006, 2007), Carretero (2008) and Kaliontzopoulou et al. (2011, 2012). A typical Iberian wall lizard of the Podarcis hispanicus complex characterized by the following features (Figs. 12, 13 & 14): moderate size (adult males 40 to 62 mm, mean 54.3, adult females 41 mm to 63 mm, mean 53.5); head and body relatively robust and not particularly flattened especially in males (Figs. 12 & 13); vertebral stripe often absent or, if present, usually limited to the anterior part of the dorsum; light dorsolateral stripes in males variably marked, usually visible but varying from only marginally paler than the ground color to nearly white, and fragmented or continuous but with irregular dark border, often including series of paler spots, when fragmented these pale dorsolateral lines are generally not broken by any intrusion from the black supradorsolateral stripe but by the brown ground color of the body; in females (Fig. 14) the light dorsolateral stripes are usually continuous with straight edges, their color varying from whitish to nearly the same color as back, some females bear rows of pale ocelli instead of continuous pale dorsolateral stripes (Fig. 14E); black supradorsolateral stripes in males highly fragmented, of same width or wider than the pale dorsolateral stripes, sometimes vestigial or absent, and carrying on the anterior part of the tail; in females dark supradorsolateral stripes narrower than the pale dorsolateral stripes or of same width, usually straight, continuous or interrupted; sometimes vestigial or absent; flanks in males dark with a row of pale ocelli often present along the flanks, in females flanks are dark bordered below by a pale stripe; pileus often uniform or weakly dark spotted, (sometimes strongly spotted); ground coloration of the dorsum in males frequently tinted green or greenish in spring, especially on the posterior part, this green coloration disappearing during summer; throat whitish, sometimes yellow, yellowish or orange, with black dots especially in males; ventral face whitish, yellowish or orange (Figs. 15A & B), sometimes brick red, with marginal ventral plates, more rarely medium and central plates, with a black quadrangular or roundish mark, rarely triangular mark; underside of the tail and rear body usually with a distinctly yellower coloration (Fig. 15A); masseteric shield generally medium-sized, sometimes absent (in 12.6% and 24.6% of males and females respectively); very numerous dorsal scales (average of the number of longitudinal rows counted at midbody 62.3 and 59.7 for males and females respectively, minimum 49 and maximum 74 for both sexes); iris pale orange to high orange (Fig. 9C). 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 a T at position 11181 and T at position 11274; the combination of C at position 10911 and A at position 11033 is also diagnostic (positions numbered according to the P. muralis mitochondrion complete genome GenBank accession number NC_011607). |
| Comment | Similar species: P. vaucheri. Distribution: Map: Geniez et al. 2014: 8 (Fig. 2), Caeiro-Dias et al. 2018: Fig. 1. |
| Etymology | The epithet virescens is a participle derived from the Latin verb “viresco” meaning “turning green, becoming green”. |
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