Leiolepis ocellata is a lizard species distributing in topographically diverse habitats in northern Thailand. To explore its evolutionary history, 113 samples of L. ocellata were collected from 11 localities covering its distributional range in northern Thailand, and sequenced for mtDNA fragments (Cyt b and ND2). Pairwise comparisons across sampling localities yielded significant genetic differentiation (FST and Jost's D) but no clear pattern of isolation by distance could be demonstrated based on the Mantel test. Phylogenetic and network analyses highlighted six haplogroups. Their divergence times were estimated to occur during the Pleistocene, much more recent than major orogenic events affecting northern Thailand. Instead, the results suggested that lineage divergences, of particularly eastern and western haplogroups of the region, coincided with the major rivers in the region (Yom river and Ping river, respectively), indicating vicariance in response to riverine barriers. Furthermore, ecological niche modeling suggested an expansion of suitable habitats of L. ocellata, when LGM‐liked conditions. This expansion potentially facilitated their dispersal among adjacent localities leading to lineage diversification and genetic admixture, after the riverine divergence.
We present non-breeding season records of the recently named Alpine Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus occisinensis from Bangladesh (four individuals) and northern Thailand (one). Identification was based on mitochondrial DNA assay of feathers or blood from birds handled during ringing. Tickell's Leaf Warbler P. affinis (sensu lato) was abundant in scrub and scattered trees at the margins of wetlands in northeast Bangladesh, whilst the record from Thailand represents a significant eastwards extension of the previously recorded wintering range. Further sampling in South and SouthEast Asia will be necessary to resolve the winter ranges of the taxa affinis and occisinensis. Within the 'Tickell's Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus affinis species complex', breeding around the margins of the Tibetan Plateau (which also encompasses the Sulphur-bellied Leaf Warbler P. griseolus), eastern populations of P. affinis were shown to constitute a distinct mitochondrial lineage that has been named Alpine Leaf Warbler P. occisinensis (Martens et al. 2008). Following this treatment, P. affinis breeds in the Himalayas, eastwards to Xizang, China, whereas P. occisinensis is distributed further east, beyond the Himalayan chain, in Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Kansu (China). Despite their deep mitochondrial divergence (15.8-16.0% in cytb, Martens et al. 2008; c.7.8% for the complete mitochondrial genome, Zhang et al. 2019) the two taxa are scarcely distinguishable using morphology and nuclear DNA, whilst any difference in song appears to be clinal, with 'bioacoustic intermediacy' over a narrow contact zone in eastern Xizang (Zhang et al. 2019). The deep mitochondrial divergence has been attributed to 'ghost introgression' as an easterly distributed ancestor expanded west and interbred with another, unknown, and presumably extinct Phylloscopus species (Zhang et al. 2019). Treatment as two species is not universally followed, however (BirdLife International 2020). Irrespective of whether P. affinis and P. occisinensis are treated as one or two species, it is of both faunal and possible future conservation interest that the winter (non-breeding) ranges of the two lineages are identified. The winter range of P. affinis (sensu lato) extends from northern and peninsular India (in the southwest Ghats) to Bangladesh and Myanmar (Rasmussen & Anderton 2005, Dickinson & Christidis 2014). Here we present records of overwintering birds sampled in northeast Bangladesh and northern Thailand. Methods Field collection.-Prior to their release, we collected feathers of three P. affinis (sensu lato) from a total of 28 individuals, mist-netted and ringed in low trees and scrub around two wetland sites in northeast Bangladesh during 2012-14 (Round et al. 2014), and from one additional individual of another 11 ringed at a third site during 2015 (Fig. 1).
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