Abstract
The widespread parthenogenetic gecko Lepidodactylus lugubris is comprised of several clonal lineages, at least one of which has been known for some time to have originated from hybridization between its maternal ancestor, Lepidodactylus moestus, and a putatively undescribed paternal ancestor previously known only from remote islands in the Central Pacific. By integrating new genetic sequences from multiple studies on Lepidodactylus and incorporating new genetic sequences from previously sampled populations, we recovered a phylogenetic tree that shows a close genetic similarity between the generally hypothesized paternal hybrid ancestor and a recently described species from Maluku (Indonesia), Lepidodactylus pantai. Our results suggest that the paternal hybrid ancestor of at least one parthenogenetic clone of L. lugubris is conspecific with L. pantai and that the range of this species extends to Palau, the Caroline Islands, the Kei Islands, Wagabu, and potentially other small islands near New Guinea. Deeper genetic structure in the western (Palau, Maluku) versus eastern (eastern Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia) part of this species range suggests that the western populations likely dispersed via natural colonization, whereas the eastern populations may be the result of human-mediated dispersal. The potential taxonomic affinities and biogeographic history should be confirmed with further morphological and genetic analyses, including research on L. woodfordi from its type locality, which would have nomenclatural priority if found to be conspecific with L. pantai. We recommend referring to the wide-ranging sexual species as Lepidodactylus pantai until such a comparison can be made.
Highlights
The gecko species Lepidodactylus lugubris (Duméril & Bibron, 1836) is comprised of a set of clonal parthenogenetic lineages that has colonized at least scores, and likely hundreds, of islands of the Pacific Basin and has more recently been introduced across the global tropics (Kraus 2009; Nania et al 2020)
Parthenogenesis in L. lugubris was originally demonstrated by Cuellar and Kluge (1972), but it was not until 20 years later that the origin of parthenogenesis was attributed to hybridization between moderately divergent bisexual Lepidodactylus species (Volobouev et al 1993; Radtkey et al 1995; see Pasteur et al 1987)
They found that L. moestus had nearly identical mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to L. lugubris, providing strong evidence that it was the maternal ancestor, and they used allozymes to determine the identity of the paternal ancestor from several candidates
Summary
The gecko species Lepidodactylus lugubris (Duméril & Bibron, 1836) is comprised of a set of clonal parthenogenetic lineages that has colonized at least scores, and likely hundreds, of islands of the Pacific Basin and has more recently been introduced across the global tropics (Kraus 2009; Nania et al 2020). Radtkey et al (1995) showed that some clones of L. lugubris arose via hybridization between two parental species in the Central Pacific, the maternal Lepidodactylus moestus (Peters, 1867) and a putatively undescribed paternal ancestor. They found that L. moestus had nearly identical mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to L. lugubris, providing strong evidence that it was the maternal ancestor, and they used allozymes to determine the identity of the paternal ancestor from several candidates. The paternal lineage has generally been considered undescribed in subsequent literature (e.g., Zug 2013:106), and even in the most recent literature it is still referred to as “a yet undescribed Lepidodactylus species from the South Pacific” (Griffing et al 2019) or in other similar terms (e.g., Murakami & Hayashi 2019). Zug (2013:106) provided a more detailed morphological description of the unidentified paternal species and constrained its range to a similar area as proposed by Radtkey et al (1995)
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