Rock island melody remastered: two new species in the Afroedura bogerti Loveridge, 1944 group from Angola and Namibia

By

Conradie, Werner
Schmitz, Andreas
Lobón-Rovira, Javier
S. Becker, François
Vaz Pinto, Pedro
Hauptfleisch, Morgan

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

98

Pages

435--453

Subjects

endemism , endemismo , especiação , flat geckos , Gekkonidae , Osga-achatada , Palavras-chave , Reptilia , Speciation

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.86299

 

Abstract

Newly collected material from northern Namibia’s Otjihipa Mountains and west-central Angola allowed us to revisit the Afroedura bogerti Loveridge, 1944 group. The employment of additional gene markers, including nuclear markers, allowed us to identify two new species in the group and infer species boundaries and potential speciation events in Afroedura from southwestern Africa. The new Namibian material is recovered as a sister species to A. donveae, from which it differs mostly by the colour of the iris (copper versus black) and dorsal colouration. Material from the first elevational gradient of the escarpment in Benguela Province, Angola was found to be more closely related to A. bogerti than A. wulfhaackei. The differences between these two species are more subtle, although the new species exhibits higher mid-body scale rows (79.5 versus 74.8), different dorsal colouration and supranasal scales always in contact (versus 57% in contact).