Clive Brignull wrote:Looking at the book preview checklist I seem to have three additional species to this. 1:- Greek or Balkan marsh frog Pelophylax kurmuelleri , found in the Peloponnese. 2:- Belearic green toad Bufotes belearicus ,( not B.viridis ) found in Menorca. 3:-Berber toad Amietophrynus mauritanicus (introduced and established ?) southern Spain. ???
What's the basis of "your checklist"? Have you read Speybroeck et al. (2010)? I'll play nice and explain
(again...), eventhough we have discussed these 3 cases on this forum already at length, and although I'm too lazy to dig up the references - see our 2010 paper.
* Pelophylax kur
tmuelleri (not restricted to the Peloponnese, but occupying all of Greece, except the NE part east of the Nestos River, S FYROM, SW Bulgaria and S Albania) deserves subspecies status at best.
* Bufotes b
alearicus has only been substantiated as a mtDNA lineage. No evidence exists to supported restricted gene flow or (any level of) nuclear DNA differentiation. Furthermore, if you are in favour of accepting balearicus at species level, you'd have to do the same for variabilis. And siculus (but I'm going to explain why we except boulengeri and not siculus - see multiple threads on this forum).
* The Berber toad is one of many alien species with small and/or temporary populations. If you can even tell me where they persist in Europe today, you would be the first.
No offence, but it's a bit surprising that anyone would roam this forum and think that we'd do a half ass job on the taxonomy.
BUT, I asked for comments and I welcome your effort!