Systematics of the Genus Trachylepis Fitzinger, 1843 (Sauria: Scincidae) in Iran: A review

Abstract

There are several papers related to the split of the Mabuya group (sensu lato) into four different subfamilies (Chinoniniinae, Mabuyinae, Dasiinae, Trachylepidinae). The Iranian species of Mabuya and totally the Middle East species of this old genus come under Afro-Malagasy clade. Also septemtaeniata and transcaucasica are more related to Euprepis branch in Afro-Malagasy clade. Further, transcaucasica should be treated as a subspecies of Euprepis and with septemtaeniata as a good species (Mausfeld and Schmitz, 2003). The Turkish species of Mabuya not only belong to any of the four aforementioned genera (Durmus et al., 2011), but also diversified from Mabuya and the rest Trachylepis species (Guclu et al., 2014). The Mabuya Afro-Malagasy and Cape Verdian group morphologically shows an intermediate position between the Asian and the South American groups. Assuming an Asian origin of the genus “Mabuya” (Horton 1973; Greer 1977) (Quoted from Faizi and Rastegar-Pouyani, 2006). According to Moravec et al. (2006) there is no record of T.aurata from Iran, but Turkish populations belong to T.aurata. The Populations from central and northern Iran belong to T. s. transcaucasiaca (Chernov, 1926) and southern populations belonging to Trachylepis septemtaeniata (Reuss, 1834). According to Morphological and molecular data, the Turkish T.vittata, T.aurata, T. septemtaeniata are separate species and T. vittata is branched off first. Based on morphological characters the Iranian T.vittata is a distinct species. The aim of this study is to provide a detailed account on current taxonomic and distributional status of the genus Trachylepis with special reference to the Iranian Plateau species. A new and updated taxonomic, biogeographic and phylogenetic status of the Iranian species of Trachylepis, based on morphological and molecular data, is at hand by the authors