Morphometric and molecular differentiation between Egyptian Stellagama stellio vulgaris and S. stellio salehi (Reptilia: Agamidae)

Abstract

From the seven recognised subspecies of Stellagama stellio, S. s. vulgaris is found in northwestern Egypt and S. stellio salehi in the south Sinai and are known to be very similar. A Principal Component Analysis was carried out for 14 morphometric fea­tures, PCA1 accounted for a little cumulative variation (87.03%) between the two subspecies with a strong canonical correlation (r = 0.999). PCA2 accounted for a high cumulative variation (98.04%) with a strong canonical correlation (r = 0.985) and head height (HH) was the only major parameter for the significant difference. Within 398 sites of 16S rRNA gene sequenced, 6 base substitutions were recorded between S. s. vulgaris and S. s. salehi and the pairwise genetic divergence was calculated as 1.5%, which is comparable to that found between some other conspecific agamids. Neither the morphometric nor the molecular data support the distinction of two different subspecies. No genetic difference was found between S. s. salehi and S. s. brachydactyla which occurs from northern Sinai over Jordan to Saudi Arabia.