Mesalina microlepis (Angel, 1936) Jiří Šmíd & Jiří Moravec & Václav Gvoždík & Jan Štundl & Daniel Frynta & Petros Lymberakis & Paschalia Kapli & Thomas Wilms & Andreas Schmitz & Mohammed Shobrak & Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani & Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani & Aurora M. Castilla & Johannes Els & Werner Mayer, 2017

Jiří Šmíd, Jiří Moravec, Václav Gvoždík, Jan Štundl, Daniel Frynta, Petros Lymberakis, Paschalia Kapli, Thomas Wilms, Andreas Schmitz, Mohammed Shobrak, Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani, Aurora M. Castilla, Johannes Els & Werner Mayer, 2017, Cutting the Gordian Knot: Phylogenetic and ecological diversification of the Mesalina brevirostris species complex (Squamata, Lacertidae), Zoologica Scripta 46 (6), pp. 1-30 : 18

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1111/zsc.12254

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5698048

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C5EA23-AE43-FFB7-54C2-FCCAA1056E44

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Mesalina microlepis (Angel, 1936)
status

stat. nov.

Mesalina microlepis (Angel, 1936) stat. nov.

Eremias brevirostris – Boulenger (1921)

Eremias brevirostris microlepis – Angel (1936)

Mesalina brevirostris microlepis – Szczerbak (1989)

Holotype. MNHN 1935.285 View Materials . Type locality: ‘Haouarine’ [‘à 55 kilomètres au S.­ E. de Homs’], ( Syria). MorphoBank pictures: M407268–M407305.

Distribution. Lebanon, Syria, northern Jordan and southern Turkey ( Fig. 1 View Figure S ).

Notes. Mesalina microlepis is morphologically very similar to M. bernoullii and, contrary to what Angel (1936) suggested it cannot be distinguished from it by the numbers of dorsal and gular scales, and subdigital lamellae. The only morphological character that discriminates the species is the structure of the lower eyelid window. All specimens of M. microlepis (including the holotype) possess a window consisting of more than three roughly equal semitransparent scales whereas the window of M. bernoullii , M. brevirostris s. s. and the new Saudi species consists of 1–3 larger semitransparent scales (see Fig. 3 in Mayer et al. 2006). Mesalina microlepis and M. bernoullii have been confirmed to occur syntopically in western Syria (Mayer et al. 2006). The presence of M. microlepis in Jordan and Turkey is confirmed based on specimens with similar eyelid window structure (Haas & Werner 1969; Kumlutaş et al. 2002).

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Squamata

Family

Lacertidae

Genus

Mesalina

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