Abstract
Liolaemus is a diverse genus of lizards, subdivided into two subgenera: Liolaemus (sensu stricto) and Eulaemus, distributed mainly in Chile and Argentina. The Liolaemus elongatus-kriegi complex is the most diverse group within Liolaemus (sensu stricto), especially the species closely related to Liolaemus elongatus, which form a clade currently comprising nine species. Several Chilean species of this group have been recently described, mainly from volcanoes and poorly explored mountains. Here molecular and morphological evidence are provided for a new species of the Liolaemus elongatus clade, which is characterized by its small size and lack of dorsal pattern, unusual features for the species of this group of lizards. Additionally, the lack of precloacal pores in males of Liolaemus (sensu stricto) is a trait found in few species, which do not constitute a monophyletic group. A second new southern Chilean species is also described, without precloacal pores and supported by molecular phylogenetics to be related to Liolaemus villaricensis. Both new species were found in the same locality, near a lake located in a pre-Andean zone with Araucaria and Nothofagus forest. The two species are dedicated to prominent Lonkos (tribal chiefs) of the Mapuche and Pehuenche people: Janequeo and Leftraru. Additionally, the phylogenetic results suggest that Liolaemus lonquimayensis is a synonym of Liolaemus elongatus.
Highlights
Liolaemus is one of the most diverse genera of lizards, including 252 species (Uetz and Hošek 2015) that are grouped into two subgenera: Liolaemus and Eulaemus (e.g. Laurent 1985, Schulte et al 2000), distributed mainly in Chile and Argentina (Abdala and Quinteros 2014)
In our Bayesian inference (BI) phylogeny (Fig. 1), the first species described in this work is found to be a member of the Liolaemus elongatus clade, which is strongly supported and includes L. antumalguen, L. burmeisteri, L. choique, L. elongatus, L. lonquimayensis, L. shitan, L. smaug, the species described here, an unidentified Liolaemus from Chillán and two candidate species (L. sp. 6 and L. sp. 7) previously suggested by Morando et al (2003)
Average uncorrected pairwise distance between the first new species and the clade L. elongatus + L. lonquimayensis + L. shitan is 3.4%, consistent with a 3% divergence previously proposed for identification of candidate species in Liolaemus (Breitman et al 2012)
Summary
Liolaemus is one of the most diverse genera of lizards, including 252 species (Uetz and Hošek 2015) that are grouped into two subgenera: Liolaemus (sensu stricto) and Eulaemus (e.g. Laurent 1985, Schulte et al 2000), distributed mainly in Chile and Argentina (Abdala and Quinteros 2014). The L. elongatus clade was characterized by Avila et al (2015) as a group of lizards of medium to large size, having long-tails, with reduced sexual dichromatism, viviparous, insectivorous, and almost exclusively saxicolous This clade comprises nine species distributed in central and southern Chile and Argentina: L. antumalguen Avila, Morando, Perez and Sites, 2010; L. burmeisteri Avila, Pérez, Medina, Sites and Morando, 2012; L. carlosgarini Esquerré, Núñez and Scolaro, 2013; L. choique; L. elongatus Koslowsky, 1896; L. shitan; L. smaug Abdala, Quinteros, Scrocchi and Stazzonelli, 2010; L. crandalli Avila, Medina, Fulvio-Pérez, Sites and Morando, 2015; and L. lonquimayensis Escobar-Huerta, Santibáñez-Toro and Ortiz, 2015. Several new species have been described in recent years, it has been suggested that the diversity within the L. elongatus-kriegi complex is underestimated and the number of species could be doubled (Morando et al 2003)
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