MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN THE IBERIAN AND THE OTHER WEST MEDITERRANEAN DISCOGLOSSUS SPECIES (AMPHIBIA SALIENTIA DISCOGLOSSIDAE)

Abstract

SUMMARY Further data are reported on morphological and genetic differentiation among western Mediterranean populations of Discoglossus (Amphibia Salientia Discoglossidae). A new species is described from the Iberian Peninsula: D. galganoi n.sp., and its genetic divergence from the other Discoglossus taxa is analyzed. In spite of being morphologically similar, D. galganoi and D. pictus are genetically much differentiated: as many as 12 out of the 35 loci electrophoretically tested show distinct alleles in the two species. This allows an easy identification of larvae and adults, both males and females, of D. galganoi and D. pictus, as well as of the other west Mediterranean Discoglossus species, by means of biochemical keys. Two of such keys, based respectively on the loci lactate dehydrogenase-1 (Ldh-1) and adenosine deaminase (Ada) are reported. An attempt is made to estimate the time of evolutionary divergence between the taxa from their genetic distance using both NEI'S formula (1975) and SARICH'S calib...