Ecological niches breadth analysis of Darevskia (Lacertidae, Reptilia) parthenogenetic lizards with various scenarios of clonal lineage formation in populations

In this work, we tested the conditions for fulfilling the concept of geographic parthenogenesis by a comparative analysis of the breadth of the ecological niches of parental and parthenogenetic lizards of the genus Darevskia with a various number of established hybridization events. Estimates of the breadth of ecological niches of the parthenogenetic species D. rostombekowi Nb = 0.6(±0.08) and parental bisexual species D. raddei raddei – Nb = 0.86(±0.9), D. portschinskii – Nb = 1.21(±0.17) showed that for this parthenogenetic species one of the most important conditions of geographic parthenogenesis is fulfilled, i.e. the niche breadth of the parthenogenetic species is smaller than its parental bisexual species. The niche breadth of another parthenogenetic species D. dahli Nb = 0.86(±0.12) is smaller than that of the «paternal» species D. portschinskii – Nb = 1.21(±0.17), but larger than that of the «maternal» species D. mixta Nb = 0.48 (±0.08), which only partially agrees with the condition of geographic parthenogenesis. This mismatch is due to the fact that D. dahli was formed as a result of several independent hybridization events, which resulted in the formation of multiple clonal lines derived from different parental pairs of D. portschinskii and D. mixta.