[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi All,
       Not having access to the paper, I can only speculate.  I have
little doubt that they may have detected 4 main lineages, but whether
these are 4 separate species is another matter.   
       I am a particularly suspicious about Hermidactylus coalescens and
Hemidactylus eniangii being separate species.  The Sanaga River may be
wide distally (toward the sea), but would be far less so proximally
(upstream).  I wouldn't be surprised if these populations intergrade
further upstream.  Just how far inland are their collection sites in
Cameroon?    
       The limitations of this study (51 specimens in only 10 forests)
may well make its conclusions premature and overconfident.  Sampling 10
forests for 4 putative species seems pretty sparse.  Granted that naming
new species is more newsworthy and career advancing than new subspecies,
but I personally would have preferred recognizing 3 species at most
given the limits in sampling.     
       That none of these species can be discriminated morphologically,
perhaps even dividing these populations into 3 species (instead of 4)
was a little too premature.  Computer output is only as good as the
computer input (limited in this case) and the assumptions attached to
that input and how it is interpreted.  Only time will tell, but today's
molecularists tend to be splitters and it may be many years before that
trend reverses and the pendulum swings back to another period of
lumping.  My present best guess is that the Hemidactylus fasciatus group
contains two or three species at most, or it even could go back to just
one widespread species.          
          ---------Ken Kinman        
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Leache, A.D. and Fujita, M.K. 2010. Bayesian species delimitation in
West African forest geckos (Hemidactylus fasciatus). Proceedings of the
Royal Society B.