A new species of sand racer, Psammodromus (Squamata: Lacertidae), from the Western Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

A new species of lacertid lizard of the genus Psammodromus is described from the Iberian Peninsula. Genetic and recentlypublished phenotypic data support the differentiation of Psammodromus hispanicus into three, and not as previously sug-gested two, distinct lineages. Age estimates, lineage allopatry, the lack of mitochondrial and nuclear haplotype sharingbetween lineages, ecological niche divergence, and the current biogeographic distribution, indicated that the three lineagescorrespond to three independent species. Here, we describe a new species, Psammodromus occidentalis sp. n., which isgenetically different from the other sand racers and differentiated by the number of femoral pores, number of throat scales,snout shape, head ratio, green nuptial coloration, and number of supralabial scales below the subocular scale. We also pro-pose to upgrade the two previously recognized subspecies, Psammodromus hispanicus hispanicus Fitzinger, 1826 fromcentral Spain and Psammodromus hispanicus edwardsianus (Dugès, 1829) from eastern Spain, to the species level: Psam-modromus hispanicus stat. nov. and Psammodromus edwardsianus stat. nov. Given that the holotype of Psammodromushispanicus was lost, we designate a neotype. We also analysed museum specimens of P. blanci, P. microdactylus and P. algirus to describe differentiation of the Psammodromus hispanicus lineages/species from their closest relatives.