BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS OF THE LATISCUTATUS SPECIES-GROUP OF THE GENUS EUMECES (SCINCIDAE, REPTILIA) FROM EAST-ASIAN ISLANDS

Genetic differentiation and phylogenetic relationships were examined for populations belonging to six species and one subspecies of the latiscutatus species-group of the genus Eumeces from East Asia by use of allozyme data. Results indicate that the population of Kuchinoshima of the northern Ryukyus, formerly assigned to E. latiscutatus, actually belongs to E. marginatus. This suggests the past dispersal of the species over Tokara Tectonic Strait, which is considered to have existed since the Pliocene. Current outlines for the two subspecies of E. marginatus (E. m. marginatus and E. m. oshimensis) were not supported; our data strongly suggested that Okinoerabujima and Yoronjima populations, currently assigned to E. m. oshimensis on the basis of color pattern, are actually more closely related to the nominotypical subspecies in the Okinawa Group. The UPGMA phenogram and the Wagner tree obtained from the genetic distance matrices seem to support Hikida's (1993) recently proposed phylogram constructed on the basis of distance matrix of morphological data in confirming the exclusively close relationships between E. okadae and E. latiscutatus, and E. marginatus and E. stimpsonii.