Phelsuma laticauda

Rocha, Sara, Rösler, Herbert, Gehring, Philip-Sebastian, Glaw, Frank, Posada, David, Harris, James & Vences, Miguel, 2010, Phylogenetic systematics of day geckos, genus Phelsuma, based on molecular and morphological data (Squamata: Gekkonidae), Zootaxa 2429, pp. 1-28 : 23

Phelsuma laticauda group

(contains P. laticauda , P. pasteuri , P. robertmertensi and P. v-nigra )

None of the members of P. laticauda group as defined by Glaw et al. (1999) ( P. serraticauda and P. antanosy ) is actually closely related to P. laticauda , according to our analysis: P. antanosy is in fact more closely related to P. quadriocellata and P. serraticauda cannot be clearly allocated to any species group (see below).

Instead, P. laticauda is recovered as the sister species to a clade containing the Comoran species P. robertmertensi , P. pasteuri and P. v-nigra ( Fig. 7 ; 100 PP in the mtDNA and combined analysis). Nuclear markers per se do not provide enough resolution to recover these groups relationship, however, the monophyly of these three Comoroan species is strongly supported by both mtDNA and combined phylogenies (100 PP; clade L in Fig. 7 a). Phelsuma pasteuri and P. robertmertensi which are both endemic to the oldest island of the Comoros archipelago ( Mayotte) form a monophyletic group, strongly corroborated by all gene phylogenies, confirming previous results ( Rocha et al. 2007) and supporting the specific status of P. pasteuri . The P. laticauda group species (clade K in Fig. 7 a) are characterized by being non-gluers with smooth ventral and sub-caudal scales, three nasalia and without nostril-rostral contact. They are mostly bright green coloured and have no lateral or dorsal pattern of stripes ( Tables 1–2 ).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Molecular phylogeny of the Phelsuma lineata group (clade J), the P. laticauda group (clade K) and P. klemmeri as calculated from the multi-gene dataset of Rocha et al. (2009). Shown are the respective clades from the Bayesian 50 % majority-rule consensus trees based on (a) the combined dataset of mitochondrial and nuclear genes, (b) the mitochondrial genes only, and (c) the nuclear genes only. See caption to Fig. 2 for further explanations.