Out in the new issue of Herp Review page 115.
LICHANURA TRIVIRGATA GRACIA (Desert Rosy Boa) USA: Nevada: Clark Co., Newberry Mountains, Christmas Tree Pass: 35.261667N, 114.746944W (WGS 84). 30 May 2010. Paul Lynum and Tony Boudreau. Verified by Carol L. Spencer, Curator of Herpetology, PhD. A single adult female was deposited as a voucher specimen at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, CA – museum catalog number MVZ 263987. This animal was found on the road at 11:18AM. This is the first documented record for the state of Nevada, however, this is the sixth animal found in the Newberry Mountains by Paul Lynum – none of the previous animals were deposited as voucher specimens. This specimen exhibits the colors and pattern of currently known extant western populations of Arizona rosy boas. Closest known localities of L. t. gracia exist east of Clark Co., in the Cerbat Mountains and Hualapai Mountains of Mohave Co., Arizona (Stebbins 2003, Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 344 pp.). Additionally, the documented localities closest to the Newberry Mountains, NV, are three specimens from Mohave County, AZ (University of Arizona Museum of Natural History: UAZ42143; UAZ47322; and UAZ55611). From the use of pattern as a phenotypic diagnostic this specimen probably represents a population that shares its most recent ancestry with western Arizona populations as opposed to populations of L. t. gracia that inhabit the desert regions of southeastern California. Furthermore, while the Colorado River can serve as a formidable geographic barrier against gene flow between California and Nevada reptile populations from Arizona reptile populations (Lamb et. al. 1989; Mulcahy et. al. 2006) such as L. t. gracia, paradoxically, the southeastern most population of L. t. gracia from the Black Mountains, Imperial Co., California, much like the Newberry Mountain population, more so phenotypically resemble boas from Arizona than they do boas from California with whom their range is contiguous.
Submitted by Mitchell Mulks, PhD candidate, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA.
References
Lamb, T., Avise, J. C. and Gibbons, J. W (1989). Phylogeographic Patterns in Mitochondrial DNA of the Desert Tortoise (Xerobates agassizi), and Evolutionary Relationships Among the North American Gopher Tortoises. Evolution, 43: (1) 76 – 87.
Mulcahy, D. G., Spaulding, A. W., Mendelson III, J. R. and Brodie Jr, E. D (2006). Phylogeography of the flat-tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii) and systematics of the P. mcallii-platyrhinos mtDNA complex. Molecular Ecology, 15: (7) 1807 – 1826.
PL
