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Using Morphological and Molecular Evidence to Infer Species Boundaries Within Proctoporus Bolivianus Werner (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae)

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Using Morphological and Molecular Evidence to Infer Species Boundaries Within Proctoporus Bolivianus Werner (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) Herpetologica, 59(3), 2003, 432–449 Ó 2003 by The Herpetologists’ League, Inc. USING MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR EVIDENCE TO INFER SPECIES BOUNDARIES WITHIN PROCTOPORUS BOLIVIANUS WERNER (SQUAMATA: GYMNOPHTHALMIDAE) 1,3,4 2 TIFFANY M. DOAN AND TODD A. CASTOE 1Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19498, Arlington, TX 76019-0498, USA 2Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32816-2368, USA ABSTRACT: Proctoporus bolivianus is a gymnophthalmid lizard species that occurs at high elevations in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru and Bolivia. Extensive morphological variation in populations collected in the Department of Cusco, Peru, suggested the presence of cryptic species. To assess this possibility, we reconstructed morphological and molecular phylogenies of 13 populations of this species and also used a character-based approach to examine the morphology in more detail. We found P. bolivianus to be composed of three distinct lineages that are separated by substantial genetic distances. We erect two new species to contain unnamed lineages within the P. bolivianus complex. These three species are found within a small geographic area and are likely differentiated because of historical geographic barriers in the extreme landscape of the central Andes. Key words: Andes; Cryptic species; Cusco; Gymnophthalmidae; New species; Peru; Proctoporus bolivianus; Proctoporus sucullucu; Proctoporus unsaacae; South America; Squamata; Taxonomy THE GENUS Proctoporus contains 27 species guentheri, and P. pachyurus, three species that that range from southern Peru and Bolivia, occupy the southern range limit of the genus following the Andes Mountains northward into and occur from central Peru to Bolivia. As Venezuela (Doan and Schargel, 2003; Kizirian, a whole, this species group is allopatric of other 1996). These montane species inhabit cloud Proctoporus species, being separated from the forest, dry forest, pa´ramo, and puna habitats P. ventrimaculatus group of northern Peru by throughout the central and northern Andes an airline distance of over 250 km along the and associated mountain ranges (Duellman, Andes (Uzzell, 1970). The P. pachyurus group 1979; Kizirian, 1996). Uzzell (1958, 1970) was unified by the presence of a single conducted two taxonomic reviews of certain members of the genus and placed some palpebral scale over the eye, a median occip- species into phenetic species groups. Kizirian ital, two or three supraoculars, and squarish (1996) performed a more extensive study of pregular scales that do not form chevrons the 16 species of Ecuadorian Proctoporus, (Uzzell, 1970). Because all of the characters describing nine previously unrecognized spe- listed, except for the first, are found in other cies. Aside from these three works, few other species of Proctoporus, only the undivided studies examining the relationships or phylog- palpebral can be considered a synapomorphy eny of the genus have been conducted (but see defining the group. The status of the group has Hillis, 1985). Although a molecular phyloge- not been examined since its description. netic hypothesis for relationships within the One member of the P. pachyurus group, P. family Gymnophthalmidae has recently be- bolivianus, occurs in the Departments of come available (Pellegrino et al., 2001), it Apurı´mac, Ayacucho, Cusco, and Puno of included no representatives of Proctoporus. southeastern Peru, as well as the Department The Proctoporus pachyurus group (Uzzell, of La Paz in western Bolivia (Uzzell, 1970). Its 1970) was erected to contain P. bolivianus, P. elevational range is from 2500–4080 m (Duell- man, 1979; Uzzell, 1970). Proctoporus bolivia- 3 PRESENT ADDRESS: Biology Department, Vassar Col- nus is not known to be directly sympatric lege, Box 555, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York 12604-0555, USA. (syntopic) with any other species of Proctopo- 4 CORRESPONDENCE: e-mail, [email protected] rus, but P. guentheri co-occurs throughout 432 September 2003] HERPETOLOGICA 433 most of its range at lower elevations (Uzzell, ethanol for long-term museum storage. The 1970). specimens were deposited at the University of Uzzell (1970) expressed considerable con- Texas at Arlington Collection of Vertebrates fusion regarding the morphological variability (UTA) and the Museo de Historia Natural of among individuals of P. bolivianus. He synon- the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio ymized three species with P. bolivianus: Abad de Cusco (UNSAAC) in Peru. Liver Oreosaurus (5 Proctoporus) lacertus Stej- tissue was taken from all individuals that were neger, P. longicaudatus Andersson, and P. deposited at UTA and stored in 95% ethanol. obesus Barbour and Noble. Despite the In addition to the specimens that were morphological variation that he found among collected in the field, supplemental material the types of the three synonyms and other was examined from KU, UNSAAC, USNM, specimens throughout the range of this UTA, and the Gabinete de Zoologı´a of the species, he felt data were not sufficient to Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad de warrant the recognition of a distinct species Cusco (GZ). Museum abbreviations follow from within the specimens of P. bolivianus.He Leviton et al. (1985) except for UNSAAC did, however, state that the names of the junior and GZ. Specimens of all other known species synonyms remained available should more of Proctoporus were also examined for com- data support the distinctiveness of certain parison (except for P. laevis for which no forms (Uzzell, 1970). material was available for loan). All specimens A new collection of P. bolivianus specimens examined are listed in Appendix I. from Cusco, Peru, displayed a high degree of morphological diversity among individuals and Morphological Characters among populations. Apparent patterns of Morphological examination of specimens morphological variation seemed to suggest included the scoring of 67 external morpho- the presence of unrecognized species within logical characters (Appendix II) from 74 these southeastern Peruvian P. bolivianus specimens. All anatomical terms and methods populations. In addition to museum speci- of taking meristic counts follow Kizirian mens, tissue samples of the same individuals (1996), except as modified by Doan and were collected to facilitate the incorporation of Schargel (2003). One of these authors (T. M. molecular data in the analysis of these Doan) scored all of the morphological charac- populations. To date, no molecular studies ters in order to reduce inter-observer variabil- have been performed on the genus Proctopo- ity (Lee, 1990). The characters used were rus, largely because of the paucity of tissues in a range of binary and multi-state, qualitative, collections. Using the three methods sug- meristic, and morphometric data and are gested by Wiens and Penkrot (2002), we based on the character set established by examined mtDNA and morphological phylog- Doan (2003a), with some expansion of addi- eny, in addition to character-based morpho- tional characters. Character 66 (green color of logical approaches, to assess the taxonomic mid-venter) was determined by scanning the status of populations currently assigned to P. ventral surfaces of each preserved specimen bolivianus. Based on the combined evidence on a flatbed scanner at 300 dpi. Because the from these sources, we herein examine species specimens were fixed in formalin and pre- boundaries and construct a species classifica- served in alcohol, the colors may not be truly tion congruent with the evolutionary species representative of their colors in life. However, concept (Wiley, 1978). all specimens were captured, collected, and preserved within 1 mo of each other and, at the time of the scanning of the specimens, had MATERIALS AND METHODS been in alcohol ,1 yr, so that any fading or A collecting trip to the Department of change of color would be equivalent for all Cusco, Peru, yielded 56 specimens of Procto- specimens. The Visioneer PaperPort program porus, including 10 P. guentheri and 46 P. was used to lighten the scans by five incre- bolivianus. Specimens were collected by hand, ments, and then the files were converted to euthanized with sodium pentobarbitol, fixed in uncompressed .tif files and input into Adobe 10% formalin, and later transferred to 70% Photoshop. The ‘‘eye dropper’’ tool was used 434 HERPETOLOGICA [Vol. 59, No. 3 to select three scales along the mid-ventral line Alignment was unambiguous and two speci- to determine the amount of green present mens (UTA R-51512 and 51515; outgroups) (scales selected were in focus with no shading showed a two-base deletion within the termi- present). The median of the three measure- nal stop codon of the protein-coding region, ments was recorded as the character state. resulting in a change in the codon sequence from TAG to TAA. No indels were inferred in Molecular Characters the tRNA regions. Gaps in alignment were The molecular analysis included at least two treated as ambiguities for phylogenetic analy- individuals of the P. bolivianus complex from ses. All sequences were deposited in GenBank all nominal available localities when possible, under the accession numbers listed in Appen- for a total of 19 samples of the P. bolivianus dix III. complex (Appendix III). Whole cellular DNA was extracted from liver tissues (stored in 95% Data Analysis ethanol) using DNeasy DNA extraction kits We utilized the approach recommended by (Qiagen). A fragment of the mitochondrial Wiens and Penkrot
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