Multiple sources of evidence reveal that Liolaemus cinereus Monguillot, Cabrera, Acosta, and Villavicencio, 2006 is synonym of L. montanezi Cabrera and Monguillot, 2006

LASPIUR A.; PIZARRO J. ; CARVALHO A. ; ABDALA C. S

South American Journal of Herpetology

Brazilian Society of Herpetology

Año: 2023

1982-355X

The inappropriate delimitation of species may lead to inflated species lists, withimplications for biodiversity research, management, and conservation. In this paper,we reassess and discuss the taxonomic status of the lizards Liolaemus montaneziCabrera and Monguillot, 2006 and L. cinereus Monguillot et al., 2006, members of theL. boulengeri species group (Liolaemidae). These taxa have been treated as syntopicand endemic to a hyper-arid desert from central-western Argentina, but are hereafterconsidered synonyms. Evidence supporting their conspecificity relies on thecomparison of morphological characters, including scale counts, morphometry, andbody-shape traits, which showed extensive overlap. Further, a comprehensivephylogenetic analysis comprising 84 terminals from the L. boulengeri group (plusseven outgroups) and 155 morphological characters (34 continuous and 121 discrete)recovered L. cinereus and L. montanezi as sibling species with no autapomorphictraits. These lizards coexist in a small area of approximately 2 km2 where no clearstructural or ecological differences were detected. The essentially identical ecology ofL. cinereus and L. montanezi is interpreted as an additional index of their status as asingle taxonomic entity. With the proposed synonymy, the name L. montanezi Cabreraand Monguillot, 2006 has priority over L. cinereus Monguillot et al., 2006, and speciesaccounts of the L. boulengeri species group should be updated accordingly.