Parthenogenetic Darevskia lizards mate frequently if they have the chance: a quantitative analysis of copulation marks in a sympatric zone

New records and geographic distribution of the sympatric zones of unisexual and bisexual rock lizards of the genus Darevskia in Armenia and adjacent territories

“…The numbers of SZs, where there was сo-existence with other parthenogenetic species D. dahli , D. unisexualis and D. rostombekowi , were eleven, four and five, respectively. Hybrid individuals of D. valentini x D. armeniaca were found in three SZs (Lchashen, Kuchak and Tezh), which were previously stated in literature ( Danielyan et al 2008 , Carretero et al 2018 ). Our data showed that the identified SZs are located in diverse habitats, such as outcrops of rocks, large stones and clay rocks in mountain steppes, mountain meadows, mountain forests and urbanised biotopes of central and eastern parts of Armenia and southern Georgia (Fig.…”

“…The number of SZs, where there is co-existence with other parthenogenetic species D. armeniaca , D. dahli and D. rostombekowi , are five, two and two, respectively. Hybrid individuals of D. valentini x D. unisexualis were found in two zones (Artavazd, Kuchak), which were previously noted in literature ( Danielyan et al 2008 , Spangenberg et al 2017 , Carretero et al 2018 ). In the SZ Artavazd, autotriploid males and sterile intersexual individuals were found from 1984-1988 ( Darevsky et al 1989 ).…”

“… Darevskia valentini is a bisexual “paternal” species for two parthenogenetic D. armeniaca and D. unisexualis species ( Darevsky 1967 , Murphy et al 2000 ). Species identification in SZs was undertaken by authors at different times using allozyme loci, multilocus DNA fingerprinting, mini- and micro-satellite markers and morphological features ( Darevsky 1967 , Uzzell and Darevsky 1975 , Moritz et al 1992 , Danielyan et al 2008 , Arakelyan et al 2011 , Carretero et al 2018 ). In the field, D. valentini identification was made using guides according to Darevsky ( Darevsky 1967 ), (Fig.…”

“…One of the important challenges in studying the ecology and evolution of parthenogenetic forms is to identify SZs of co-existence of bisexual and unisexual lizards. In particular, it was shown that many of the 112 females of the analysed species D. armeniaca and the "paternal" species D. valentini from the SZ Kuchak (Armenia) were characterised by copulation marks ( Carretero et al 2018 ). Copulation marks, of course, do not necessarily lead to copulation; however, between-species copulations were observed regularly ( Galoyan 2013 ).…”

A phylogenetic assessment of the meadow lizard Darevskia praticola (Eversmann, 1834) from Iran

“…In the first case, some parthenogenes may even backcross with bisexual males producing polyploid individuals (Danielyan et al 2008). In these cases, hybrids and backcrosses do not always present intermediate morphologies (Carretero et al 2018), while mtDNA flow across species is expected (Freitas et al 2018), making it challenging to infer its evolutionary history. Nevertheless, this knowledge is still highly incomplete, particularly for those species not involved in hybridization events, and peripheral to the main genus range.…”