I need to identify to which species belongs specimen in the museum collection.
As far as I know, nothing reliable. Only the colour of the throat in juveniles has been mentioned. Additionally, there's a 3rd clade of uncertain specific assignment along the E Adriatic until W Greece.
I also failed to find any reference on diagnostic traits other than hatchling colouration. Several years ago Werner Mayer, in his talk at the AG Lacertiden, said that genetic differences are actually within the intraspecific divergence as well.
Thank you Jeroen an Evgeny. That's true, I don't know either why they are different species (and agilis ssp. Are not), but must be some at least very weak characters.
There are some distinct differences in the squamation of the head: The scutum rostrale reaches only in very few cases the nostril (Lacerta bilineata) or reaches it in most cases (Lacerta viridis). You can see it on the pictures (on top: Lacerta bilineata, Bötzingen, Kaiserstuhl, Germany; photo: R. Ritt and on bottom: Lacerta viridis, Donauleiten near Passau, Germany; photo: R. Ritt). The scutum rostrale is marked in red.
This was noticed from MERTENS & SCHNURRE (1949): Eidonomische und ökologische Studien an Smaragdeidechsen Deutschlands; Abh. Senckenb. naturf. Ges.48: 1-28, cited from: R. GÜNTHER(1996): Die Amphibien und Reptilien Deutschlands, G. Fischer, Stgt.
Furthermore, there are differences in the squamation on the back.
I hope, I could help you.
Best wishes
Rudolf Ritt
Thank you, Rudolf, I already lost any hope. That's really what I needed.
The researches of MERTENS & SCHNURRE were made only with German specimen, so I think, it may be not reliable for specimen from the mediterranean. I know a herpetologist, who is writing right now a chapter about Lacerta viridis for a new book - I will ask him. I also know a scientist, who made lots of work about Lacerta viridis. I contacted her, but I have no answer yet.
Thank a lot! From what I found after reading your answer, this character is quite popular in the systematics of Lacerta. Unfortunately, you are right, extent of variation is not very well known and from pictures I have it's hard to say if it works or not. Anyway, thanks a lot. This problem should be solved sooner or later, it's not always possible to sequence DNA.
Perhaps some points out of the book of GÜNTHER are helpful for you: the italian population is preliminary counted among bilineata, but needs a revision. The subspecies meridionalis, paphlagonica, and infrapunctata should belong to viridis. The greek specimen are not concluding investigated.
Another morphological character to distinguish viridis from bilineata ( I think also primarily in German specimen) are the number of scales on the back are less on bilineata (mean 48) than on viridis (mean 52).
Hello Oleksandr,
I told you, I wanted to ask a herpetologist about this theme, now I did it. To the morphhological differences: he knows only from differences in colour of the very joung specimen after leaving the egg.
He said, the research for separating the two species was made at the University of Bremen, Germany, by Hans Konrad Nettmann and Silke Rykena. Perhaps they can help you with your problem. Literature for this I have only that what you can find on Research Gate:
Hans Konrad Nettmann: Zur Geschichte einer vermeintlichen Neuentdeckung. Zwei Smaragdeidechsenarten in Deutschland.
Silke Rykena · Hans Konrad Nettmann · R. Guenther: Westliche Smaragdeidechse - Lacerta bilineata.
Silke Rykena · Hans Konrad Nettmann · R. Guenther: Östliche Smaragdeidechse - Lacerta viridis.
Best wishes
Rudolf Ritt
Dear Rudolf, many thanks for you valuable help. I briefly checked specimens I have - contact between rostral schild and nostril seems to be variable in my lizards, there is no clear rule so far. Need to check number of scale rows around midbody, thanks for the hint. Unfortunately I don't have access to a good library with papers you mentioned, but I requested them from Dr. Nettmann directly. I've heard about hatchlings pattern, unfortunately my lizards are adults.
Thank you again,
Oleksandr.
Hello Oleksandr,
I told you, I asked another scientist who is very involved in research of Lacerta viridis. Now she gave me an answer: there is no reliable distinction between L. viridis and L. bilineata in adult specimen. She thinks, the two species will be reunited into one in the foreseeable future due to more genetic results.
Best regards,
Rudolf
Really sad. I mean that I don't care much about taxonomical status, well it could be that they are under some concepts are not species at all. But from my experience, every population of animal could be distinguished if you find appropriate marker. Sometimes this could be done only with microsatellites, sometimes - morphology (I have such study with vipers populations). I've got strange result which points on introduction of L. bilineata and source population is somewhere in Italy according to genetics. But sample is old and low quality so I need other line of evidence for such conclusion. Probably going to museum and really thorough morphological description will give me an answer...
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