Complete albinism in a Podarcis muralis newborn Filippo Spadola1, Francesco Di Toro2 1Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria di Messina, Università degli Studi di Messina, Viale Annunziata, I- 98168 Messina, Italy. Corresponding author. E-mail: filippo.spadola@unime.it 2Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Teramo, Italy Abstract. The authors describe a case of complete albinism in a Podarcis muralis new- born, from Chieti (Abruzzo, central Italy) in September 2004. This is the first complete albinism case in a Podarcis spp. in the world. Keywords. Podarcis muralis, albinism, morphology. Albinism is a genetic anomaly caused by the absence of the tyrosinase enzyme, which is necessary for the synthesis of melanin (recessive gene), resulting in the absence of pig- ment in the skin, the iris (red color of the eyes) and the choroid. The albinos (homozygotes) of a visibly weaker constitution, have notably sun-sensitive skin (heliophobic), causing them much difficulty during their growth due to the impossibility of exposure to UV rays. Cases of albinism reported for European reptiles are very few. None of them has been recorded in Italy regarding lizards, and albinism has been recorded only in a few snakes: the first one dates back to 1878 (Pirotta, 1878) and the most recent for the colu- brid Zamenis longissimus longissimus, which lacked absolutely melanin, and showed the characteristic light skin and red eyes (Ferri and Bettiga, 1992), and for Hierophis viridifla- vus (Scali, 1992). Concerning records of albinism in European lizards, cases of albinism have been reported for Timon lepidus (Arribas and Cliville, 1994), Gallotia caesaris gomer- ae (López-Jurado and Mateo, 1998), Euleptes europaea (Delaugerre, 1981), Anguis fragilis (Robert et al., 1965), and Podarcis muralis (Fontanet and Matallanas, 1985). Outside of Europe, cases of albinism have been found in Eumeces fasciatus (Brungs et al., 1960), Phrynosoma coronatum blainvillii (Shaw, 1963), Sceloporus undulatus hyacintni- nus (Hensley, 1968), Corytophanes hernandezi (Pérez-Higareda, 1980), Tiliqua sp. (O’Shea and Kent, 1988), Ctenosaura similis (Mora, 1990), Carlia bicarinata (O’Shea, 1993), Sauro- malus obesus (Beaman et al., 2003), Varanus kingorum (Eidenmüllser, 2003). Our work reports the first case of complete albinism in a newborn Podarcis muralis found in the Province of Chieti (Abruzzo, central Italy), in September 2004. It was about 6 cm long and had a light yellow skin over a completely white background and red eyes. It was born in 2004, and seemed undernourished, but not sick at first glance. The site of collection is located in a hilly zone (altitude: 180 m a.s.l.) between the San- gro and Aventino. The most common vegetation is swamps with an extensive reed thicket with Typha laxmanni, Epipactis palustris, Alnus glutinosa, and Quercus peduncolata. Acta Herpetologica 2(1): 49-51, 2007 50 F. Spadola and F. Di Toro Fig. 1. The newborn albino P. muralis found near Chieti. Fig. 2. Dorsal view of the above individual. 51Complete albinism in Podarcis muralis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank Guido De Virgiliis and Giovanni Vespia for their cooperation. REFERENCES Arribas, O., Cliville, S. (1994): Albinismo en Lacerta lepida Daudin, 1802 (Reptilia: Lacer- tidae). Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp. 5: 20-23. Beaman, K.R., Toohey, D.R., Crandall, G.T. (2003): Sauromalus obesus (Common chuck- walla). Albinism. Herpetol. Rev. 34: 246. Brungs W.A., Jr., Britt, N.W. (1960): An Albino five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus, Lin- naeus. Copeia 1960: 369-370. Delaugerre, M. (1981): Cas d’albinisme chez Phyllodactylus europaeus Gené, 1838: 1er cas signalé dans la famille des Gekkonidae (Sauria, Reptilia). 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