every probability to assume that this species
is also of hybrid nature and resulted
from hybridization between various diploid
bisexual forms formerly united under the
common specific name L. belliana. Based
on the small sample at his disposal BÖHME
(1982) showed that there are some
marked distinctions in size and coloration
between the individuals from Pattani in
southern Thailand and Kuan tan from the
neighbouring regions of Malaysia. It is
quite possible that actually two different
bisexual species are involved, representing
the parental forms of the parthenogenetic
L. boehmei.
Let us now consider the mechanism
that could have led to the origin of the
Vietnam triploid species L. guentherpetersi.
According to cytogenetic features
and to analogies with L. triploida, there is
every reason to believe that L. guentherpetersi
is also of hybrid nature, and that
the bisexual forms L. reevesii and L. guttata
have taken part in its formation. As
shown in the map (fig. 2) the former of the
probable parental species is distributed
north, the latter south of L. guentherpetersi.
An answer to the question on the
hybrid origin of the Vietnam triploid
species is, however, complicated by the
fact that possible maternal diploid parthenogenetic
forms similar to L. boehmei
have not yet been found within Vietnam.
By analogy with examples of hybridogenesis
in other parthenogenetic lizard
species (MORITZ & al. 1989), one could
surmise that such an intermediate diploid
unisexual form once existed somewhere in
central Vietnam in the area of L. guentherpetersi.
In this case, the origin of this latter
triploid species may be hypothesized as
follows: At the first stage, as a result of
hybridization between the bisexual species
L. reevesii and L. guttata, a now extinct
diploid unisexual form appeared. Its backcross
hybrids with one of the parental
species may have become the ancestors of
L. guentherpetersi. It is difficult to say
now, from which parental form this triploid
species received two genomes. In
this connection it should be noticed that L.
guentherpetersi possesses a type of coloration
and dorsal pattern which is clearly