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DeAgamis2: 2nd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON AGAMID LIZARDS
within the genus are still far from clear. We investigated the phylogenetic relationships and intraspeci-fic differentiation among the Iranian and Central Asian species of these lizards (69 individuals collected from 14 populations of four well-defined species and several unidentified specimens using two mitochondrial gene fragments (ND2 and cyto-chrome b)). The partition-homogeneity tests indicated that the combined dataset was homogeneous, and maximum-parsimony (MP), maximum-likelihood (ML) and Bayesian (BI) analyses were performed on this combined dataset. The trees reconstructed by different methods were generally very similar. Relationships among the examined species and populations were highly resolved. The basal position in the tree was always occupied by
Trapelus ruderatus (= the formerly T. persicus) which in turn formed the sister taxon for populations of T. lessonae. The phylogenetic analysis together with genetic distances among the major clades suggested that, in the Iranian Plateau, T. agilis, genetically, represents a species complex containing at lease three well distinct taxonomic entities at the species level. The analyses also showed that, despite their vast distribution range, the Central Asian populations are genetically very homogenous, just representing a single taxonomic entity (i.e., T. sanguino-lentus).
Key words: Agamidae, Trapelus, T. agilis complex, molecular phylogeny, intraspecific differentiation, mitochondrial DNA, Iranian Plateau, Central Asia.
NOMENCLATURAL DILEMMA OF TRAPELUS RUDERATUS-LESSONAE-PERSICUS (SAURIA: AGAMIDAE): SOLVING THE PUZZLE
Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Razi University Kermanshah 67149, Iran E-mail: [email protected]
Based on extensive study and collecting material in the field and examining the relevant material in the museums and zoological collections, including the type specimens of Trapelus ruderatus ruderatus (Olivier), T. megalonyx Gunther, T. lessonae (De Filippi), T. persicus (Blanford) and T. ruderatus baluchianus (Smith), the taxonomic status of the ground agamids Trapelus ruderatus ruderatus, T persicus and T. lessonae has been re-evaluated.
Based on this study, it was found that the holotype of Trapelus ruderatus ruderatus is a subadult of the conventional T. persicus and that of T. lessonae is a typical form of the conventional T. ruderatus ruderatus. With regards to these re-
markable mis-identifications by the original de-scribers and in order to resolve the taxonomic and nomenclatural status of the three above-mentioned taxa, some major nomenclatural changes are proposed as follows: Since T. lessonae is the oldest available name, it is revived for all populations of the conventional T. ruderatus ruderatus and the specific name «ruderatus» is, in turn, assigned for all populations of the conventional T. persicus (due to priority rule). Therefore, the specific name «per-sicus» comes under the synonymy of «ruderatus» and is no longer available.
Key words: Agamidae, Trapelus, nomencla-tural dilemma, taxonomic re-evaluation.
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