Thomas Bader wrote:What is the latest news about Bufo viridis/variabilis. Why did Bobby use viridis for Turkey?
Because he listens to reason and sometimes to me
I should remember where I posted this before
Here's the proposal I submitted to the SEH Taxonomic Committee in 2011, which was subsequently voted and accepted. To my knowledge, no new data has been published since.
"After Stöck et al. (2006) elevated a number of green toad mitochondrial lineages to species level and subsequently described a new species from Sicily based on the same pool of evidence, Speybroeck et al. (2010) argued against accepting species on the basis of mitochondrial DNA only. Subsequently, Colliard et al. (2010) provided additional evidence of limited gene flow in a natural contact zone and of an elevated degree of reproductive isolation between Bufo siculus and Bufo balearicus sensu Stöck et al. (2006). Thus, it seems indeed rightful to consider a species level split. However, as no additional evidence is available to clarify the relationships between Stöck et al.’s balearicus on one hand and viridis s.s. and variabilis on the other, the situation remains as assessed by Speybroeck et al. (2010). This also goes for Bufo siculus and Bufo boulengeri. Conclusively, we would like to propose to accept for now two species – Bufo viridis (with subspecies viridis, balearicus and variabilis) and Bufo boulengeri (with subspecies boulengeri and siculus).
Colliard, C.; Sicilia, A.; Turrisi, G.F.; Arculeo, M.; Perrin, N.; Stöck, M. 2010
Strong reproductive barriers in a narrow hybrid zone of West-Mediterranean green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup) with Plio-Pleistocene divergence
BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 232.
Speybroeck, J.; Beukema, W.; Crochet, P.-A. 2010
A tentative species list of the European herpetofauna (Amphibia and Reptilia) — an update
Zootaxa 2492: 1–27.
Stöck, M.; Moritz, C.; Hickerson, M.; Frynta, D.; Dujsebayeva, T.; Eremchenko, V.; Macey, J.R.; Papenfuss, T.J.; Wake, D.B. 2006
Evolution of mitochondrial relationships and biogeography of Palearctic green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup) with insights in their genomic plasticity
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41: 663-689.
Stöck, M.; Sicilia, A.; Belfiore, N.M.; Buckley, D.; Brutto, L.; Valvo, L.; Arculeo, M. 2008
Post-Messinian evolutionary relationships across the Sicilian channel: Mitochondrial and nuclear markers link a new green toad from Sicily to African relatives
BMC Evolutionary Biology 8: 56 (19 pp.)"