Pelobates syriacus boettgeri Mertens, 1923

Dufresnes, Christophe, Strachinis, Ilias, Tzoras, Elias, Litvinchuk, Spartak N. & Denoel, Mathieu, 2019, Call a spade a spade: taxonomy and distribution of Pelobates, with description of a new Balkan endemic, ZooKeys 859, pp. 131-158 : 142-143

Pelobates syriacus boettgeri Mertens, 1923

Diagnosis.

Similar to the nominal subspecies, notably in terms of cranial characters ( Roček 1981) and coloration patterns (Fig. 4). Most biometric data on P. syriacus come from populations of P. s. boettgeri (Fig. 2, see above). As shown in Table 1, P. s. boettgeri differs from P. s. syriacus by 1.7% at mtDNA and 0.01% at nuclear DNA ( Dufresnes et al. 2019b).

Taxonomy.

The oldest nomen available for Anatolian/Caucasian spadefoots is Pelobates syriacus boettgeri Mertens, 1923; type locality: Belesuwar, southeastern Azerbaijan; holotype: SMF 1725 (originally 1437.2a, Mertens 1923). A single junior synonym. Pelobates transcaucasicus Delwig, 1928; type locality: “Tiflis” (Tbilisi), Georgia; types: ten syntypes, nine at ZISP, and one at ZIK (Amph A5/A (2164)). Subspecies level of P. s. boettgeri is granted by its phylogenetic divergence from P. s. syriacus , but the recent split (~1 My) and the widespread traces of admixture between both subspecies in Armenia, Turkey (Antalya region), and Israel argue against a specific status.

Distribution and diversity.

See the accounts for P. syriacus .