comparative morphology and histology of hemipeneal structure of laudakia nupta (de filippi, 1843) and paralaudakia caucasia (eichwald, 1843)

The morphology and structure of the hemipenis play a significant role in the recognition of species,and could be an excellent indicator of the phylogenetic relationships among male taxa. thehemipenes have value in distinguishing taxa. laudakia nupta and paralaudakia caucasia aresympatric in kalekan neck (northeastern regions of kermanshah province, 34° 42’ n, 47° 17’ e,elevation: 1880 m). in this study, we investigated and compared hemipeneal structure of laudakianupta and paralaudakia caucasia as character displacement in sympatric populations. hemipenes ofeight adult collected males (four from each species) were removed and examined morphology andhistology. the results indicate that there are differences in the structure of their hemipenis betweentwo species. in laudakia nupta, hemipenes are black organs, approximately smooth tubular withgroove and split in tips but in paralaudakia caucasia, hemipenes are pink organs, bilobed, branchedand bifurcated structure. it seems that the difference between the structure of hemipenises in twospecies can be a factor in the separation of male species in kalekan neck (northeastern regions ofkermanshah province). the structure of hemipenis is potentially important for distinguishing malespecies.