Taxonomic investigation with morphological and molecular methods of Ablepharus (Sauria:Scincidae) genus in Turkey

Eight Ablepharus taxa [A. bivittatus (Ménétries, 1832), A. budaki budaki Göçmen, Kumlutaş and Tosunoğlu, 1996, A. budaki anatolicus Schmidtler, 1997, A. chernovi chernovi Darevsky, 1953, A. chernovi eiselti Schmidtler, 1997, A. chernovi isaurensis Schmidtler, 1997, A. chernovi ressli Schmidtler, 1997 and A. kitaibelii kitaibelii (Bibron ve Bory, 1833)] have been located in Turkey. However, these taxa were not adequately tested in molecular and morphological methods. For this reason, these taxa were examined in more detail with more samples. During the study, 279 samples were used in the morphological analyses in terms of 18 metric, 29 meristic and 14 index or ratio characters. In addition, DNA isolation was carried out from a total of 40 samples of each taxa. Then, a nuclear (cmos) and two mitochondrial (cyt b and COI) gene regions were amplified by PCR. According to the results, A. bivittatus is quite different from the other members of the genus in terms of morphological and molecular aspects. We also believed that A. chernovi eiselti should be raised to species level and isaurensis must be subspecies belonging to this species. The populations in Thrace and south of Marmara of A. kitaibelii was determined to be A. kitaibelii stepaneki. On the other hand, the distribution of the taxa and the ecological characteristics of localities were determined, the color-pattern characteristics were given and description key were also prepared to distinguish the taxa.