Taxonomic Status of Fowlea tytleri (Blyth, 1863) from the Andaman Islands
Keywords:
Biodiversity studies, mtDNA, reptiles, Southeast Asia, XenochrophisAbstract
The analysis of mtDNA data (16S ribosomal RNA) shows that the Fowlea (formerly Xenochrophis) of the Andaman islands, formerly referred to as Fowlea (or Xenochrophis) tytleri are conspecific with F. piscator (Schneider, 1799). Specimens from the Andaman islands form a mixed clade together with individuals from the mainland and differ from the latter by genetic distances of 0.2–0.5% (except for 1.7% from a single mainland specimen that also differs from other mainland samples of F. piscator by 1.4–1.5% genetic distance). The genetic distances between individuals of F. piscator and its supposed sister taxon F. flavipunctatus vary from 4.8 to 7.3%. In pholidosis, F. tytleri and F. piscator are essentially identical. Based on the evidence from mtDNA and morphological data (the latter taken from the literature), we formally place Fowlea tytleri (Blyth, 1863) in the synonymy of F. piscator (Schneider, 1799).
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