Laudakia vulgaris, (SONNINI & LATREILLE, 1802), 2022

Karameta, Emmanouela, Lymberakis, Petros, Grillitsch, Heinz, Ilgaz, Çetin, Avci, Aziz, Kumlutaş, Yusuf, Candan, Kamil, Wagner, Philipp, Sfenthourakis, Spyros, Pafilis, Panayiotis & Poulakakis, Nikos, 2022, The story of a rock-star: multilocus phylogeny and species delimitation in the starred or roughtail rock agama, Laudakia stellio (Reptilia: Agamidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195 (1), pp. 195-219 : 212

LAUDAKIA VULGARIS ( SONNINI & LATREILLE, 1802) STAT. NOV.

Included taxa: Laudakia s. picea ( Parker, 1935) , L. s. brachydactyla ( Haas, 1951), L. s. vulgaris ( Sonnini & Latreille, 1802) , L. s. salehi (Werner, 2006) and the Jordan phylogenetic subclade.

Type specimen: Agama stellio vulgaris ( Sonnini & Latreille, 1802) , FMNH 153134 (neotype) Crochet et al. (2006) (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA) .

Type locality: El Amiria, Alexandria, Lower Egypt, by present neotype designation.

Distribution: All localities from Egypt, Jordan, Israel and south-western and western Syria (east to Palmyra).

Remarks: According to the principle of priority of the ICZN (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature), this distinct genetic lineage was named vulgaris as that is the oldest available name. It includes the morphological subspecies of L. s. picea , L. s. brachydactyla, L. s. vulgaris and L. s. salehi, as well as a new phylogenetic subclade that corresponds to the Jordan populations from the eastern side of the Wadi–Araba valley, previously reported as an unnamed subspecies. The subspecific description of the latter is under preparation, but we have to note that the subspecific status of L. s. vulgaris and L. s. salehi is ambiguous and requires further investigation.