Evidence item

Herein this eastern population is reassessed using an integrative dataset combining broad mitochondrial screening, a six-locus phylogeny, and comparative morphology. Phylogenetic analyses recovered four main well-supported clades... The Hindu Kush lineage is inferred to be deeply divergent... with an estimated split in the Late Miocene at approximately 10 Mya. This deep mitochondrial divergence is further supported by concordant structuring in the nuclear allele networks... Multivariate analyses of morphometric, meristic, and categorical data separate the Hindu Kush lineage... We therefore describe this eastern lineage as a new species, currently known from two foothill localities along the southern margin of the Hindu Kush.