Morphometric and molecular differentiation between EgyptianStellagama stellio vulgarisandS. stellio salehi(Reptilia: Agamidae)

摘要

From the seven recognised subspecies ofStellagama stellio,S. s. vulgarisis found in northwestern Egypt andS. stellio salehiin the south Sinai and are known to be very similar. A Principal Component Analysis was carried out for 14 morphometric fea-tures, PCA1 accounted for a little cumulative variation (87.03%) between the two subspecies with a strong canonical correlation (r = 0.999). PCA2 accounted for a high cumulative variation (98.04%) with a strong canonical correlation (r = 0.985) and head height (HH) was the only major parameter for the significant difference. Within 398 sites of 16S rRNA gene sequenced, 6 base substitutions were recorded betweenS. s. vulgarisandS. s. salehiand the pairwise genetic divergence was calculated as 1.5%, which is comparable to that found between some other conspecific agamids. Neither the morphometric nor the molecular data support the distinction of two different subspecies. No genetic difference was found betweenS. s. salehiandS. s. brachydactylawhich occurs from northern Sinai over Jordan to Saudi Arabia.