Turkish friends

[frank]

Hi,

A one week trip to Turkey... not easy but try to guess the species / subspecies...

 

[wouter]

1. L. antalyana
2. L. billae
3. L. luchani
4. L. atifi ?
5. L. atifi

Difficult ones, Frank! I'm curious about the results!

 

[mark]

Great stuff Frank.You don't get to see many photos of these guys. Lyciasalamandra lushani antalyana, basoglui and atifi at a guess.

 

[hayden]

Very Cool Photos, Frank. You are one lucky guy.

 

[william]

1. L. anatylana (yellow parotids give it away)
2. L. l. basoglui
3. L. billae? parotids seem too dark
4. L. atifi
5. L. flavimembris

some great shots! i think Jen will be on your tail for some of these for CC!

 

[william]

BTW which species did subspecies basoglui and finikensis fall into? all the others sub-species were upgraded to species level but these too were left behind

 

[frank]

OK, the first two have been identified:
L. antalya (easy: the yellow parotid glands)
L. billae (typical orange ground color but even more so the white lateral stripe, which extends until under the eye)

 

[william]

3. basoglui
4. luschani
5. finikensis

 

[frank]

almost... 3 is ok (L. luschani basoglui). L. luschani contains 3 subspecies: L. l. luschani, L. l. basoglui and L. l. finikensis.

 

[william]

aahh i felt sure i'd nailed those other 2... i've read a description of all species/subspecies although they didn't have helverseni, but i'm guessing as you say Turkish friends that helverseni isn't there as it's Greek!

(Message edited by will_j on March 02, 2006)

 

[frank]

The two latter are:
L. luschani finikensis
L. l. luschani; this is a really stunning subspecies with an amazing variety of colour patterns in the same population, including typical basoglui and finikensis patterns. I hope to photograph the remaining ones this month (trying to avoid catching flu...).