Ratas Island Lizard - Podarcis lilfordi rodriquezi

Lacerta lilfordi rodriquezi Müller, 1927

The Ratas Island Lizard was a large subspecies of Podarcis lilfordi (Lilford's Wall Lizard). Males of this subspecies had an average snout-vent (cloaca) length of 67 mm (ranging between 61-78 mm), while females had an average snout-vent length of 64 mm (ranging between 59-67 mm). It is chacterised by uts high number of dorsal scales around the midbody. The male had about 81 scales in average (ranging between 73-86) and females 77 scales (ranging between 71-80). (Müller 1927; Eisentraut 1949; Zawadski 2010).

The back colour was variable, ranging from olive and olive-brown to dark blue. The markings were fragmented and faded. The sides and the tops of the legs were green and grey. The upper tail was dark greenish-grey or blue. The belly was red or yellow. (Pérez-Mellado 1998; Pérez-Mellado and Salvador 1988; Salvador 1986; Salvador 2006) 

The Ratas Island Lizard once lived on Isla Ratas, a former rocky island in the bay of Mahón, Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. (Day 1981; Salvador 2008; Zawadski 2010) Isla Ratas was located west of Isla del Rey (Illa del Rei), which is still present in the bay.

Image: a map with the location of the Spanish island Menorca (coloured red). The Bay of Mahón is located at the east side of the island. Created by Peter Maas for The Sixth Extinction website. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.

Between 1934-1936 the small island Isla Ratas (or Ratas Island in English) was dynamited and destroyed in order to widen the small passage in the Bay of Mahón for bigger ships (Compte Sart 1968, Zawadski 2010). The destruction of this small island resulted in the extinction of the Ratas Island Lizard (Day 1981; Zawadski 2010).

Ratas island, which was its only habitat, was destroyed when Port Mahon was rebuilt (Day, 1981). 

As far as The Sixth Extinction website knows, there have been no conservation attemps in order to save this subspecies.

The only surviving specimen of this subspecies is the holotype (ZSM [SLM] 1540), kept in the collection of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München (München, Bavaria, Germany). This female has been collected at "Islas das Ratas" by Rodrigues and Femenias in 1903. The paratypes (ZSM [SLM] 229), two specimens, have been lost. (Franzen & Glaw 2007; Zawadski 2010) Previously it was thought that there were four specimens of this subspecies (Day 1981) in the collection of Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (Zawadski 2010). However, these specimens were mislabelled as "Lacerta lilfordi rodriquezi, Balearen, Isla Ratas, 14.4.1930" and are in fact Podarcis pityusensis ratae from the island Isla Ratas southeast off the coast of Ibiza or Eivissa (Pine Islands, Balearic Islands, Spain), and not from the destroyed island Isla Ratas in the Bay of Mahón (Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain). (Zawadski 2010)

The closest living relatives of the Ratas Island Lizard are the surviving subspecies of Podarcis lilfordi. For more information and pictures of the several subspecies, visit: Lacerta.de - Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874).

Image: an adult pair of the related subspecies Podarcis lilfordi balearicus (Bedriaga, 1879). A male is shown in the right and a female in the left. Photographed at Isla del Rey (Menorca, Spain) on 20 September 2008 by Marten van den Berg. © 2008. All rights reserved.

Ratas Island Lizard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Compte Sart, A. (1968): La Fauna de Menorca y su origen (Síntesis de la fauna de Menorca, su naturaleza y un ensayo acerca de su origen). Revista de Menorca, Número extra, 212 pp.

Day, D. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London.

Eisentraut, M. (1949): Die Eidechsen der Spanischen Mittelmeerinseln und ihre Rassenaufspaltung im Lichte der Evolution. Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin, 26: 5–225.

Franzen, M. & F. Glaw (2007): Type catalogue of reptiles in the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. Spixiana 30 (2): 201–274. Available online: http://www.zsm.mwn.de/her/pdf/Franzen&Glaw_2007_type_catalogue_reptiles.pdf.

Müller, L. (1927): 1. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Rassen von Lacerta lilfordi Gthr. – Zoologischer Anzeiger, Leipzig, 73: 257–269.

Pérez-Mellado, V., Salvador, A. (1988). The balearic lizard: Podarcis lilfordi (Gunther, 1874) (Sauria, lacertidae) of Menorca. Arquivos do Museu Bocage, Nova Série, 1 (10): 127-195.

Pérez-Mellado, V. (1998). Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874). Pp. 272-282. En: Salvador, A. (Coord.). Reptiles. En: Ramos, M. A. et al. (Eds.). Fauna Ibérica. Museo nacional de Ciencias naturales, Madrid.

Salvador, A. (1986). Podarcis lilfordi (Günther, 1874) – Balearen-Eidechse. Pp. 83-110. En: Böhme, W. (Ed.). Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas. Band 2/II. Echsen (Sauria) III (Lacertidae III: Podarcis). Aula verlag, Wiesbaden.

Salvador, A. (2006). Lagartija balear – Podarcis lilfordi. En: Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles. In: Carrascal, L. M., Salvador, A. (Eds.). Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid. http://www.vertebradosibericos.org/. Available online: http://www.vertebradosibericos.org/reptiles/pdf/podlil.pdf.

Zawadzki, M. (2010). Remarks on Podarcis lilfordi rodriquezi (L. MÜLLER, 1927), an extinct subspecies of the Balearic lizard. www.lacerta.de. Downloaded on 1 December 2010 from: http://www.lacerta.de/AS/Artikel.php?Article=110.