Species delimitation studies based on integrative taxonomic approaches have received considerable attention in the last few years, and have provided the strongest hypotheses of species boundaries. We used three lines of evidence (molecular, morphological, and niche envelopes) to test for species boundaries in Peruvian populations of the Liolaemus walkeri complex. Our results show that different lines of evidence and analyses are congruent in different combinations, for unambiguous delimitation of three lineages that were “hidden” within known species, and now deserve species status. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that L. walkeri, L. tacnae and the three new species are strongly separated from other species assigned to the alticolor-bibronii group. Few conventional morphological characters distinguish the new species from closely related taxa and this highlights the need to integrate other sources of data to erect strong hypothesis of species limits. A taxonomic key for known Peruvian species of the subgenus Lioalemus is provided.
Figure 1.
Concatenated maximum likelihood (-Log L = 8452.31415) tree based on cyt-b and 12S haplotypes of focal taxa (Ancash, Ayacucho Cusco) and species assigned to the alticolor group and outgroups. Bootstrap ≥ 70 (*) and posterior probabilities values are shown above and below branches respectively.
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Figure 2.
Detailed view of the cloaca region showing absence (A, D) or presence (B, C, E) of precloacal pores: (A) Ancash, (B) Ayacucho, (C) Cusco, (D) L. tacnae, and (E) L. walkeri.
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Figure 3.
Ventral view showing the color patterns of the belly and tail: (A) Ancash, (B) Ayacucho, (C) Cusco, (D) L. tacnae, and (E) L. walkeri.
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Figure 4.
Lateral view showing the color patterns of (A) Ayacucho, (B) Cusco, and (C) L. walkeri.
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Figure 5.
First and second principal components (PC) and correspondence axes (CA) of morphometric (A) and meristic (B) data of Ancash, Ayacucho, Cusco, L. tacnae and L. walkeri respectively.
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Figure 6
Predicted area and known geographic distribution (A) used to develop distributional models of Ancash (B), Ayacucho (C), Cusco (D), L. tacnae (E), and L. walkeri (F).
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Figure 7.
ROC curves and AUC values for (A) Ancash, (B) Ayacucho, (C) Cusco, (D) L. tacnae and (E) L. walkeri.
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Figure 8.
Dorsal (A) and ventral (B) views of the holotype of Liolaemus chavin sp. n. (C) Type locality.
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Figure 9.
Lateral (A), dorsal (B), and ventral (C) views of the holotype of Liolaemus pachacutec sp. n.. (D) Habitat of L. pachacutec
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Figure 10.
Lateral (A), dorsal (B), and ventral (C) views of the holotype of Liolaemus wari sp. n. (D) Type locality.
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Figure 11.
Geographic distribution of L. chavin, L. pachacutec, L. tacnae, L. walkeri, and L. wari.
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SupplementaryFile2
Examined museum specimens and locality data from L. alticolor, L. chavin, L. incaicus, L. pachacutec, L. walkeri and L. wari.