Morphological differentiation of an isolated population of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis sicula) of the southeastern Adriatic coast

Abstract

Variation in a number of morphometric, meristic and qualitative characters of the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis sicula) of eastern Adriatic coast was analysed using multivariate statistics. The analysis included samples from the contiguous portion of the range of P. s. campestris and an isolated southern population from Kotor (P. s. cattaroi). All three sets of parameters revealed a similar pattern of variation in the extent of divergence of the disjunct population. It was characterised by large overall body size, while particular meristic and qualitative traits varied differently in the direction of small or great values and percentages. The fluctuating asymmetry (FA) indexes of several meristic traits in Kotor sample appeared to be significantly higher than in other samples.