Morphological evidence of species differentiation within Lepus capensis Linnaeus, 1758 (Leporidae, Lagomorpha) in Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

A morphological study was carried out of the hares (Lepus) from Cape Province previously assigned to the subspecies L. capensis capensis, L. c. centralis, and L. c. grantii. The purpose of the study was to characterize the species L. capensis Linnaeus, 1758. In doing so, it was possible to distinguish two populations which we consider different species, as each shows homogeneous cranial, dental and pelage features. One of them, defined as L. capensis, is distributed near Cape Town not far from the coast, between Lambert's Bay and Cape Agulhas. The other species, defined as L. centralis, which includes L. grantii as a synonym, is distributed in central and western Cape Province. L. capensis and L. centralis have a parapatric distribution, with a small area of sympatry in a contact zone in Compagnies Drift area, near Lambert's Bay. With respect to cranial differences between the two species, L. capensis has a stronger maxilla and more robust dental series, while L. centralis has larger tympanic bullae. Among dental characters, L. centralis usually has a deeper groove and more abundant cement than L. capensis in the first upper incisor, and its internal lobe is squared, while in L. capensis is rounded. As for pelage color and pattern, L. capensis shows a more extended white ventral area than L. centralis. Our results are of interest for further research on taxonomic problems regarding Old World hare populations in which L. capensis is concerned.

Molecular evidence of conspecificity of South African hares conventionally considered Lepus capensis L., 1758

“…capensis'' as delineated by Palacios et al (2008). They featured external phenotypes (pelage) as well as non-metric skull and tooth characteristics concordant with those described by Palacios et al (2008) for the morpho-species ''L. capensis''.…”

“…Several of the latter specimens (particularly those from Victoria West determined as L. capensis centralis according to Roberts 1951) were available to check non-metric skull and dental characters, which corresponded to that of ''L. centralis'' sensu Palacios et al (2008). Their sampling locations were outside the range of ''L.…”

“…Their sampling locations were outside the range of ''L. capensis'' sensu Palacios et al (2008) but from within the range of ''L. centralis'' sensu Palacios et al 2008 (and from within the range of L. capensis as conventionally understood, e.g., Hoffmann and Smith 2005;Collins 2005).…”

“…capensis'' sensu Palacios et al (2008) but from within the range of ''L. centralis'' sensu Palacios et al 2008 (and from within the range of L. capensis as conventionally understood, e.g., Hoffmann and Smith 2005;Collins 2005). The respective molecular data of nine of those latter specimens (all from the environs of Victoria West; 311 24 0 16 00 S/231 06 0 56 00 E) have already been published by Ben Slimen et al (2008a, b), and have been integrated in the current analyses.…”

“…Prior to a Neighbor Joining (NJ) analysis we used Modeltest 3.06 to find the best-fit model of DNA substitution (Posada and Crandall 1998), which was the HKY85 model with T-Ratio ¼ 7.4852, Shape ¼ 0.8187, Pinvar ¼ 0.3221. The NJ tree was constructed with Palacios et al (2008), black and grey circles: L. centralis acc. to Palacios et al (2008), black circles: localities explicitly within the range of L. centralis as described by Palacios et al (2008).…”