A phylogenetic analysis of the southern African gecko genus Afroedura Loveridge (Squamata: Gekkonidae), with the description of nine new species from Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa Author Jacobsen, Niels H. G. Author Kuhn, Arianna L. Author Jackman, Todd R. Author Bauer, Aaron M. text Zootaxa 2014 3846 4 451 501 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.3846.4.1 317a43cd-c408-4fde-8374-357fbb9a0d53 1175-5326 250495 0DD5A603-D65F-4976-BBE9-94DA7110053F Afroedura transvaalica ( Hewitt, 1925 ) ( Fig. 3 C) Distribution. Zimbabwe and adjacent northern Limpopo province, South Africa , central Mozambique and possibly extreme eastern Botswana (Bauer 2014k) ( Fig. 4 ). FIGURE 3. Representatives of the species groups of Afroedura . (A) A. hawequensis group: A. hawequensis (Limietberg, Western Cape, South Africa); (B) A. transvaalica group: A. bogerti (Iona National Park, Namibe Province, Angola); (C) A. transvaalica group: A. transvaalica (30 km west of Musina, Limpopo, South Africa); (D) A. africana group: A. karroica (Sneeuberg Mountains, Eastern Cape, South Africa); (E) A. nivari a group: A. pondolia (Durban, ZwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). Note the strongly verticillate original tail base in A. transvaalica and the bulbous regenerated tail in A. hawequensis . Photo A: Marius Burger, Photos B–C, E: Johan Marais, Photo D: Stuart V. Nielsen. FIGURE 4. Map of southern Africa showing the approximate distributional ranges of previously described species of Afroedura . Red dots represent localities sampled for the genetic portion of the study. Ranges based on Branch (1998) and Bates et al. (2014) as well as unpublished data. Taxon names follow the conclusions of this paper. Area demarcated by a dashed line is presented in more detail in Figure 6. Remarks. Our molecular phylogeny reveals relatively deep divergences among the samples, with Limpopo samples clustered with southern Zimbabwean ones and more northerly populations more distinct ( Fig. 1 ). Previous interpretations of distributional data for this taxon reflected three disjunct populations (e.g., Onderstall 1984 ; Branch 1998), however, more complete sampling across Zimbabwe suggests that there may be no significant gaps between these (D.G. Broadley, pers. comm.) and this is reflected in our approximation of the species’ range ( Fig. 4 ).