Afroedura transvaalica ( Hewitt, 1925 )

Jacobsen, Niels H. G., Kuhn, Arianna L., Jackman, Todd R. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2014, A phylogenetic analysis of the southern African gecko genus Afroedura Loveridge (Squamata: Gekkonidae), with the description of nine new species from Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, Zootaxa 3846 (4), pp. 451-501 : 467-469

Afroedura transvaalica ( Hewitt, 1925)

( Fig. 3 C)

Distribution. Zimbabwe and adjacent northern Limpopo province, South Africa, central Mozambique and possibly extreme eastern Botswana (Bauer 2014k) ( Fig. 4 ).

Remarks. Our molecular phylogeny reveals relatively deep divergences among the samples, with Limpopo samples clustered with southern Zimbabwean ones and more northerly populations more distinct ( Fig. 1 ). Previous interpretations of distributional data for this taxon reflected three disjunct populations (e.g., Onderstall 1984; Branch 1998), however, more complete sampling across Zimbabwe suggests that there may be no significant gaps between these (D.G. Broadley, pers. comm.) and this is reflected in our approximation of the species’ range ( Fig. 4 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood phylogram of Afroedura relationships derived from two genes (ND 2, RAG 1). Support values are presented as maximum likelihood bootstraps (MLBS) / Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) / parsimony bootstraps (PBS). Only most closely related outgroup taxa are shown. Images (top to bottom) of representative Afroedura species groups: A. hawequensis, A. pondolia, A. karroica, A. loveridgei, A. haackei, A. marleyi, A. granitica sp. nov.

FIGURE 3. Representatives of the species groups of Afroedura. (A) A. hawequensis group: A. hawequensis (Limietberg, Western Cape, South Africa); (B) A. transvaalica group: A. bogerti (Iona National Park, Namibe Province, Angola); (C) A. transvaalica group: A. transvaalica (30 km west of Musina, Limpopo, South Africa); (D) A. africana group: A. karroica (Sneeuberg Mountains, Eastern Cape, South Africa); (E) A. nivari a group: A. pondolia (Durban, ZwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). Note the strongly verticillate original tail base in A. transvaalica and the bulbous regenerated tail in A. hawequensis. Photo A: Marius Burger, Photos B – C, E: Johan Marais, Photo D: Stuart V. Nielsen.

FIGURE 4. Map of southern Africa showing the approximate distributional ranges of previously described species of Afroedura. Red dots represent localities sampled for the genetic portion of the study. Ranges based on Branch (1998) and Bates et al. (2014) as well as unpublished data. Taxon names follow the conclusions of this paper. Area demarcated by a dashed line is presented in more detail in Figure 6.