Testing the ability to store sperm: an experimental manipulation of mating opportunities in the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis

Female common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) typically reproduce annually and lay more than one clutch per season. In this study, we tested whether females store sperm between clutches and between years by manipulating mating opportunities of females through appropriate experiments. Our results revealed that females are definitely unable to store sperm for medium or long-term, suggesting they necessary need to repeatedly mate with males to fertilize their eggs. Finally, by comparing our results to other similar multi-clutched species, we conclude that sperm storage probably does not constitute a selective advantage for species with a promiscuous reproductive system based on multiple mating in populations with high densities

A misunderstood new gecko of the genus Hemidactylus from Socotra Island, Yemen (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae)

A new endemic gecko of the genus Hemidactylus is described from Socotra Island (Yemen). It is a rupicolous species characterized by: medium-large size (SVL up to 60 mm), back with large trihedral, raised, strongly keeled tubercles intermixed with small granular scales, males with 6-10 preanal pores arranged in two short rows separated by 2-3 scales. In East Africa, Arabia, the Middle East and India the only other tuberculated Hemidactylus with preanal pores arranged on two separate rows is the Somali H. granchii Lanza, 1978, which differs for the comparatively deeper and shorter head, the nostril separated from the first upper labial, less preanal pores, less upper and lower labials, more tubercles at midbody and more lamellae under the inner toe

Sexual size and shape dimorphism in the Moorish gecko (Tarentola mauritanica, Gekkota, Phyllodactylidae)

Two main adaptive hypotheses are invoked for the evolution of SD: sexual selection and natural selection. In snakes SD is generally interpreted as the adaptation of the two sexes to different ecological niches, whereas in lizards sexual and ecological causes may work simultaneously, with different outcomes according to taxonomic group. Surprisingly, geckos have been almost ignored in the general debate over the evolution of SD, despite their being an extremely diversified taxon with over 1300 species showing a wide range of variability in SD. The Moorish gecko is one of those species whose dimorphism is poorly studied. We took an integrated approach using a linear (biometrical) analysis on head and body size of 157 geckos and a relatively new analytical approach (geometric morphometry) to assess head size of 38 geckos from central Italy. Males were, on average, larger and heavier than females, and body size relationships differed between age classes showing a significant SD between sexes. When controlling for snout to vent length, sexes differed only in body mass and eye diameter (larger in males). Head shape, on the contrary, showed differences according to age classes, with deep differences in hatchlings compared to adults and, among adults, between sexes. However, the growth trajectories did not differ among sexes, and SD of head shape is probably due to a more prolonged growth of the males with respect to the females. The male-biased pattern of SD in this species is most parsimoniously interpreted as the result of sexual selection, whereby larger head and body size probably confer a greater advantage to males during combats and courtship, rather than conferring independent adaptations to different ecological pressures to each sex

Inferring speciation processes and cytonuclear discordance by morphology and coalescent methods in two Iberian voles

Trabajo presentado en el II Iberian Congress of Biological Systematics (CISA2013), celebrado en Barcelona del 25 al 27 de septiembre de 2013.N

Bergman’s rule and the Italian Hermann’s Tortoises (Testudo hermanni): latitudinal variations of size and shape

We used geometric morphometric analysis to investigate latitudinal variation in size and shape of carapace and plastron of I I I Testudo hermanni hermanni (60 males and 51 females) collected in 6 different Italian regions. Basing on a sample of 14 landmarks for carapace and 18 landmarks for plastron, we showed that the size and shape of both sexes changed according to a North-South cline following the Bergmann's rule, tortoises of Northern Italy being 1.1-1.2 larger than that of Southern Italy. Shape variation was higher in carapace probably because sexual selection in this species acts stronger on plastron than on carapace shape

Forgotten in the ocean: Systematics, biogeography and evolution of the Trachylepis skinks of the Socotra Archipelago

The Socotra Archipelago, in the north-west Indian Ocean, is considered to be one of the most remote and most biodiversity rich and distinct islands in the world. Often referred to as the 'Galapagos of the Indian Ocean', it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Natural site in 2008. Despite having a very rich and bizarre fauna and flora with a high level of endemicity at both species and generic levels, the taxonomy of most of the groups is still not clear, and their origin and evolution remain unknown. Reptiles constitute the most relevant vertebrate fauna of the Socotra Archipelago, with 90% of the 30 species and 45% of the 12 genera being found nowhere else in the world. The skinks of the endemic species Trachylepis socotrana are the only reptile species in the Archipelago distributed across all four islands (Socotra, Darsa, Samha and Abd Al Kuri). Although the species is very well known from Socotra Island, it was not discovered on Samha until 1999 and on Darsa until 2000, whereas only a few citations and one single Museum specimen exist for the population from Abd Al Kuri. To clarify the systematics, biogeography and evolution of Trachylepis socotrana, we assembled a dataset for Mabuya sensu lato including 904 base pairs (bp) of sequence (392 bp from the 12S and 512 from the 16S rRNA mitochondrial genes) for 115 individuals, including specimens of T. socotrana from all four island populations, numerous representatives of the genus Trachylepis from the Middle East, Africa and Madagascar, plus some individuals from each of the other three genera of Mabuya sensu lato (Chioninia, Eutropis and Mabuya). The results of the phylogenetic analyses indicate that, contrary to what was previously thought, members of the genus Trachylepis have colonized the Socotra Archipelago in two independent events, with the first giving rise to the populations from Socotra, Samha and Darsa and the second to the Trachylepis from Abd Al Kuri Island. According to the calibrations, both colonization events occurred within the last fourteen million years, when the Socotra Archipelago had already drifted away from Arabia, thus ruling out vicariance. Both morphological and genetic data show that the Trachylepis from Abd Al Kuri is a distinct taxon, which is herein described as a new species belonging to the T. brevicollis species complex. On the basis of this evidence, the terrestrial herpetofauna from Abd Al Kuri is composed exclusively of endemic species (one of which, the gecko Pristurus abdelkuri, was introduced into some parts of Socotra). © 2012 The Authors. Zoologica Scripta © 2012 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.We would also like to thank the Minister Abd al-Rahman Fadhl al-Iriyani (Ministry of Water and Environment of Yemen) for his support and interest in the project. DNA work was funded by grant CGL2009-11663/BOS from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain. S.C. and M.M. are members of the Grup de Recerca Emergent of the Generalitat de Catalunya: 2009SGR1462; M.M. is supported by a FPU predoctoral grant from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain (AP2008-01844). Research work by S.C. at the BMNH received support from the SYNTHESIS project GB-TAF-270, which is financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure under the FP7 ‘Structuring the European Research Area’ Program. Some phylogenetic analyses were run in the cluster facility of the IBE funded by the Spanish National Bioinformatics Institute (http://www.inab.org).Peer Reviewe

hemi_arb-soc_mc1r_starbeast12_So-14sp

Sequence alingment for the gene mc1r used in the *BEAST analysi

hemi_soc_cyb_all-hap

Sequence alignment of Hemidactylus specimens from Socotra based on unique haplotype sequences of mitochondrial gene cy