| Ses Aligues population not studied PÉREZ-MELLADO & SALVADOR, 1988 Podarcis lilfordi addayae PÉREZ-MELLADO, 1997 Ses Àguiles population ZAWADZKI & VAN DEN BERG, 2015 Escull de Ses Àguiles ESU PÉREZ-CEMBRANOS et al., 2020 |
Pérez-Mellado, V. & Salvador, A. (1988) - The Balearic lizard Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874) (Sauria, lacertidae) of Menorca. - Arquivos do Museu Bocage (Nova Série), 1(10): 127-195.   × A studie was carried out on 17 populations of Podarcis lilfordi inhabiting the islets off the coast of Menorca (Balearic Islands). Pattern and colouring together with the statistical analysis performed suggested that the menorcan rassenkreis comprises a total of 9 subspecies. The evolutionary processes involved appear to be fundamentally governed by the age of the islets, their distance from the coast and by their ecological conditions. Though in certain cases it may be postulated that genetic drift may have acted as a differentiating mechanism in populations which were initially small. However, interpretation of the microevolutionary processin Menorca is more difficult thnin the case of other rassenkreis of the Balearic Islands due to extinction of the `mother` population on the main island. Pérez-Mellado, V. (1997) - Podarcis lilfordi (GÜNTHER, 1874). Lagartija balear. - p. 361-363 in PLEGUEZUELOS, J.M. (Ed.): Distribución y biogeografía de los anfibios y reptiles en España y Portugal. – Monográfica Tierras del Sur, 19. Universidad de Granada, Asociación Herpetológica Española. Granada, 542 pp. Zawadzki, M. & Berg, M.P. van den (2015) - Lizards in the mist - and a shot in the dark. The search for the terra typica of Podarcis lilfordi carbonerae PÉREZ-MELLADO & SALVADOR, 1988. - L@CERTIDAE, 2015 [8]: 160-191. × In ihrer taxonomischen Studie über die Baleareneidechsen von Menorca beschrieben Pérez-Mellado & Salvador (1988) drei neue Unterarten von Podarcis lilfordi. Die Typenserie der Unterart Podarcis lilfordi carbonerae wurde im Jahre 1933 auf der Insel „Isla Carbonera“ gesammelt. Die Tatsache, dass ihre Beschreiber die Insel auf keinem Kartenmaterial finden konnten, jedoch nicht zögerten, die Exemplare als neue Unterart zu beschreiben, war mehr als unglücklich und trug sicherlich zur Verwirrung um den Status dieser Eidechsen bei. Doch nicht nur diese Tatsache allein warf ein schlechtes Licht auf diese taxonomische Studie. Wie unsere Analysen zeigen, enthielt diese nämlich weitere grobe Fehler, die in nachfolgender Literatur übernommen wurden. Auch die Wiederentdeckung von Podarcis lilfordi carbonerae durch Pérez-Mellado et al. (2002) beruhte lediglich auf Annahmen und enthielt keinen wissenschaftlichen Nachweis. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir die Illa de Ses Mones als mögliche Terra typica von Podarcis lilfordi carbonerae vor. Da sich weder die Eidechsen von En Carbó noch von der Illa de Ses Mones von den Populationen der beiden nahe gelegenen Inseln Illa Gran d`Addaia und Illa Petit d`Addaia bezüglich ihrer Färbung sowie meristischer und metrischer Werte unterscheiden, betrachten wir Podarcis lilfordi carbonerae Pérez-Mellado & Salvador, 1988 als Synonym von Podarcis lilfordi addayae (Eisentraut, 1928). Pérez-Cembranos, A. & Pérez-Mellado, V. & Alemany, I. & Bassitta, M. & Terrasa, B. & Picornell, A. & Castro, J.A. & Brown, R.P. & Ramon, C. (2020) - Morphological and genetic diversity of the Balearic lizard, Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874): Is it relevant to its conservation? - Diversity and Distributions. https://doi. org/10.1111/ddi.13107 × Aims: To characterize the genetic and morphological diversification of the endan- gered Balearic lizard Podarcis lilfordi and to assess the relevance of this diversity, and how it is described, to conservation measures.
Location: This study covers all the populations of the Balearic lizard, Podarcis lilfordi, present in its range of distribution at coastal islets of Menorca, Mallorca and Cabrera Archipelago.
Methods: We analysed genetic and morphological variation across the 43 known extant populations of the Balearic lizard, using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. We examined morphometric and scalation characters using, in some cases, phyloge- netically independent contrasts. We also incorporated the study of dorsal coloration and dorsal colour pattern including the analysis of melanism in several populations. Results: We detected clear genetic divergence between Menorcan populations and populations from Mallorca and Cabrera, in both nuclear and mtDNA markers, but genetic divergence is relatively low among different insular populations within these groups. In contrast, morphological divergence was substantial both between Menorcan and remaining populations and within these groups. Morphological traits, such as dorsal coloration, body size and the number and size of scales, seemed to be linked with differences in climatic conditions between populations. In addition, some traits, as melanism, showed a strong phylogenetic signal.
Main conclusions: The morphological and genetic diversity of the Balearic lizard is incongruent with the subspecies described in the classical taxonomic literature. Moreover, current populations differ not only in some genetic and morphological features, but also in several ecological and ethological characteristics, in many cases unique to one population. Based on our results, we propose abandoning the use of subspecies to describe the extraordinary morphological diversity of the Balearic liz- ard and its replacement with the concept of evolutionary significant units (ESUs). ESUs are particularly suitable to describe and recognize such diversity and, especially, to ensure the continuity of the evolutionary process.
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