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Podarcis lusitanicus GENIEZ, SÁ-SOUSA, GUILLAUME, CLUCHIER & CROCHET, 2014

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Higher TaxaLacertidae, Lacertinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymPodarcis guadarramae lusitanicus GENIEZ, SÁ-SOUSA, GUILLAUME, CLUCHIER & CROCHET 2014
Podarcis guadarramae lusitanicus — MALKMUS 2018
Podarcis lusitanicus — CAEIRO-DIAS et al. 2021
Podarcis lusitanicus — PINHO et al. 2022 
DistributionN Portugal, NW Spain

Type locality: 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 elevation.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: MNHN-RA 2012.0263 (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, formerly BEV.3987), holotype by present designation; an adult male collected 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] [lusitanicus] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (lusitanicus). 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. 9B); 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. 10B with Fig. 5B), 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 & 8B), 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). 
CommentDistribution: see map in Geniez et al. 2014: 8 (Fig. 2), Caeiro-Dias et al. 2018: Fig. 1, Caeiro-Dias et al. 2021.

Species delimitation: Caeiro-Dias et al. 2021 provide evidence that supports the recognition of lusitanicus as a valid, but cryptic species. P. lusitanicus and P. guadarramae are the only (sub-) species of the Podarcis hispanicus complex that even experienced observers cannot (yet) reliably distinguish based on morphology. Based on their analysis P. bocagei is more closely related to guadarramae than it is to lusitanicus, hence elevation to species level would avoid the paraphyly with P. bocagei (although all 3 could be also considered subspecies of bocagei). 
EtymologyNamed after the type locality. 
References
  • Ayres, Cesar; Miguel Domínguez-Costas 2021. Arboreal behavior in the Lusitanian Wall Lizard, Podarcis guadarramae (Boscá 1916). Reptiles & Amphibians 28 (1): 13-14 - get paper here
  • Băncilă, Raluca I. and Jan W. Arntzen 2016. Isolation of lizard populations measured with molecular genetic data – Podarcis guadarramae in the Ria de Arosa archipelago. Amphibia-Reptilia, DOI: 10.1163/15685381-00003066 - get paper here
  • Boscá, E. 1916. Dos observaciones a propósito de la Lacerta muralis en España. Bol. R. Soc. Española Hist. Nat. 16: 327-330. - get paper here
  • Caeiro-Dias, Guilherme, Carla Luís, Catarina Pinho, Pierre-André Crochet, Neftalí Sillero and Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou 2018. Lack of congruence of genetic and niche divergence in Podarcis hispanicus complex. J Zool Syst - get paper here
  • Caeiro-Dias, Guilherme, Sara Rocha, Alvarina Couto, Carolina Pereira, Alan Brelsford, Pierre-André Crochet, and Catarina Pinho. 2021. Nuclear Phylogenies and Genomics of a Contact Zone Establish the Species Rank of Podarcis lusitanicus (Squamata, Lacertidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 164: 107270 - get paper here
  • GENIEZ, PHILIPPE; PAULO SÁ-SOUSA, CLAUDE P. GUILLAUME, ALEXANDRE CLUCHIER, PIERRE-ANDRÉ CROCHET 2014. Systematics of the Podarcis hispanicus complex (Sauria, Lacertidae) III: valid nomina of the western and central Iberian forms. Zootaxa 3794: 1–51 - get paper here
  • Kwet, Axel 2014. Neues von den Iberischen Mauereidechsen um Podarcis hispanicus. Terraria-Elaphe 2014 (5): 56-57 - get paper here
  • Kwet, Axel & Benny Trapp 2014. Liste der Reptilien Europas. Draco 15 (60): 72-79 - get paper here
  • Malkmus, Rudolf 2018. Quer durch die Serra de Montemuro. Terraria-Elaphe 2018 (5): 40-48 - get paper here
  • Ortega et al., 2014. Altitudinally divergent adult phenotypes in Iberian wall lizards are not driven by egg differences or hatchling growth rates. Oecología 177: 357-366 - get paper here
  • Pinho, Catarina; Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, Carlos A Ferreira, João Gama 2022. Identification of morphologically cryptic species with computer vision models: wall lizards (Squamata: Lacertidae: Podarcis) as a case study. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2022;, zlac087, - get paper here
  • SANTOS, B. S., MARQUES, M. P., & CERÍACO, L. M. 2024. Lack of country-wide systematic herpetology collections in Portugal jeopardizes future research and conservation. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 96, e20230622 - get paper here
  • Sillero, Neftalí; Verónica Gomes 2016. Living in clusters: the local spatial segregation of a lizard community. Basic and Applied Herpetology 30: 61-75 - get paper here
  • Speybroeck, Jeroen; Wouter Beukema, Christophe Dufresnes, Uwe Fritz, Daniel Jablonski, Petros Lymberakis, Iñigo Martínez-Solano, Edoardo Razzetti, Melita Vamberger, Miguel Vences, Judit Vörös0, Pierre-André Crochet 2020. Species list of the European herpetofauna – 2020 update by the Taxonomic Committee of the Societas Europaea Herpetologica.. Amphibia-Reptilia 41: 139-189 - get paper here
 
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