Podarcis siculus (Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810)

Sindaco, Roberto & Razzetti, Edoardo, 2021, An updated check-list of Italian amphibians and reptiles, Natural History Sciences 8 (2), pp. 35-46 : 41

50 Podarcis siculus - This species shows many mitochondrial lineages both in the continent and in some large islands (Podnar et al., 2005; Silva-Rocha et al., 2012; Senczuk et al., 2018) whose ranges and extent of hybridization are not known (D. Salvi in litt.). One of the main branches includes specimens from Sicily, Sardinia and part of Calabria, the other branch the remnant Italian populations (both with campestris or siculus phenotypes). According to Podnar et al. (2005) P. s. cettii (Cara 1872) from Sardinia was introduced in historical times and originated from Sicily, and it is therefore a synonym of P. s. siculus . Recently the populations of P. siculus from western Pontine Islands have been raised to species rank Podarcis latastei (Bedriaga 1879) by Senczuk et al. (2019). This proposal has been rejected by Speybroeck et al. (2020) but defended by Castiglia et al. (2021). Pending a thorough revision of the species, we adopt the more conservative opinion by Speybroeck et al. (2020).