[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Kenneth Kinman]

Dear All, 
        I would have to agree that these species
descriptions do not seem to fulfill Code requirements. That might
actually be a blessing in disguise, because it would not only allow the
authors the opportunity to more rigorously define these new taxa, but
also reconsider whether that all three of their new taxa deserve full
species status.             
         I am trying to be open-minded about whether
there are more than one species involved here, but I am still doubtful
that there are four (even though the authors consider that a
conservative estimate).          
        Perhaps a better working hypothesis would be
three possible separate species, with just one species from Nigeria to
the Congo (coalescens and eriangii as just subspecies separated by that
large river in Cameroon). Contrary to what the authors seem to believe,
I don't think that river would be so restrictive to gene flow to produce
full speciation compared to the Dahomey Gap which separates those two
populations from the two purported western species.  Having these
lizards cross that river either actively (by swimming) or passively
(especially during flooding situations) seem likely scenarios over long
periods of time.         
      Whether those two purported western species (kyaboboensis and
fasciatus) are truly separate species, I simply don't have enough
information to evaluate at all.   And it is a shame that the genetic
sequences upon which this study were based are not available on the NCBI
database. Another oversight that the authors failed to consider?         
       Finally, although it would be helpful to document morphological
differences that back up the sequence differences, that would not
necessarily mean that the populations are different species.  Many
subspecies often show both morphological and sequence differences, so
even having both is not automatically  indicative of speciation.
Hemidactylus fasciatus may or may not be a single polytypic species, but
I am reluctant to agree that it is a conservative estimate that it is
actually four or more separate species.  I would say two, or at most
three, species would be a more fruitful hypothesis from which to work.     
       ---------Ken Kinman