| Illót des Frares population BOSCÁ, 1881 Lacerta lilfordi jordansi EISENTRAUT, 1930 Podarcis lilfordi kuligae ZAWADZKI, 2010 Podarcis lilfordi jordansi ZAWADZKI, 2010 Illot des Frares ESU PÉREZ-CEMBRANOS et al., 2020 |
| Whether this population is a mix of the original population, from the time it was still a real island, with recently introduced specimens of Cabrera, or a pure introduced population from Cabrera, has yet to be determined. |
Boscá. E. (1881) - Sesion del 9 de Febrero de 1881. - Actas de la Sociedad Española de Historica Natural, 1881: 7-13.  Eisentraut, M. (1930) - Beitrag zur Eidechsenfauna der Pityusen und Columbreten. - Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin, 16: 397-410.  Zawadzki, M. (2010) - Beobachtungen an einer Population von Podarcis lilfordi (GÜNTHER, 1874) auf der ehemaligen Insel Frailes bei Colónia de Sant Jordi, SW-Mallorca (Spanien, Balearen). - Die Eidechse, Bonn, 21 (2): 43-52.   × During several visits to Mallorca between June 2003 and September 2008 a small population of Podarcis lilfordi has been found on the remains of the small island Frailes at the harbour of Colónia de Sant Jordi. Most of the lizards are melanistic and inhabit the rocky parts of the former island together with the Moorish Gecko (Tarentola mauritanica). It is very likely that this lizard population originates in lizards from Cabrera (P. l. kuligae) and from the nearby islands Moltona and Guardia (P. l. jordansi).
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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