About lizards of Montenegro .....

[Francesco Tri]

What are these?

[Mario Schweiger]

Francesco,

all the green ones are Lacerta viridis/L. cf. bilineata. Where you have made the photos? Along the Bojana river?
The brown ones:
The upper is Podarcis muralis,
the lower is a brown morph of Podarcis melisellensis.

Mario

[Francesco Tri]

Thanks for your prompt reply, Mario: Yes, the photos I've taken almost always near the river Bojana.
Damn, why the Lacerta viridis / bilineata are so small in Montenegro? even some I had mistaken for Podarcis taurica!

[Ilian Velikov]

Definitely all greens are L.viridis / billineata! I've heard about small size in Montenegro populations but I don't know why,either! Would be nice if someone could give us some more info on this subject!

[Mario Schweiger]

The Lacerta cf. bilineata from the Bojana river are smaller than from other localities. But they are not so small as Podarcis tauricus. Lets say, they have the size of Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis).
It seems, they are separated for a longer time from the mountainous populations more (north)east. Not sure, because we don´t know on the situation in Albania.
When I saw the first, I though, they look like ssp. meridionalis: small, brown hind limbs and tail (except some green on the tails dorsal side).

Lacerta cf. bilineata, male; Bojana river, Montenegro; May 2006

Lacerta cf. bilineata, male; Bojana river, Montenegro; May 2006

Mario

[Ilian Velikov]

They do look like meridionalis! By the way..on what is based the separation of viridis and billineata! To be honest I can't tell any visible difference between the two!?

[Francesco Tri]

In fact there is no difference in somatic, but only genetic, or so say the latest scientific papers on the subject

[Ilian Velikov]

Thanks,Francesco! I thought it's something like this!

[Mario Schweiger]

Hello,

there is also a (very slight) morphological difference between these "two species".
Hatchlings of "bilineata" have a green throat, viridis not!
Also the genetic difference is very low.
If we accept bilineata as own species, we should (must) have at least two more:
The cf. bilineata from Adriatic/Ionian east coast.
and the true meridionalis (at least from Terra typica area - Vil. Sakarya, NW Turkey).

Mario