Mosaicism in somatic triploid specimens of the Bufo viridis complex in theKarakoram with examination of calls, morphology and taxonomic conclusions

The discovery of triploidy in green toads from the Karakoram range and West Himalayas (Northern Pakistan) is reported. Somatic, mitotic metaphases com prising 33 conventionally and quinacrine mustard stained chromosomes are de scribed. Meiotic metaphases and diakineses demonstrate the occurrence of di ffer ent ploidy levels (diploid, triploid, tetraploid) in the male germ lin e of somatic triploid specimens. Flow cytometric data on DAPI stained blood samples from 54 specimens preliminarily seem to provide evidence for all-t riploid populations. The mean projection areas of 30 erythrocytes per speci men were measured. The analysis of 16 morphometric characters with univaria te and multivariate methods and the comparison with published data exhibite d differences of the present toads to both diploid and tetraploid toads fro m Middle Asia. Bioacoustic analyses revealed similarity of mat ing calls to those of tetraploid toads. A single specimen of Bufo (viridis) pseudoradde i Mertens 1971, was also found to be triploid. Present populations from Kar akoram represent a separate subspecies B. pseudoraddei baturae n. ssp. whic h are morphologically different from B. p. pseudoraddei and B. latastii Bou lenger, 1882. A lectotype of B. latastii was selected. B. siachinensis Khan , 1997, was found to be a synonym of B. latastii.