Only a few major research programs are currently targeting COI barcoding of amphibians and reptiles (including chelonians and crocodiles), two major groups of tetrapods. Amphibian and reptile species are typically old, strongly divergent, and contain deep conspecifi c lineages which might lead to problems in species assignment with incomplete reference databases. As far as known, there is no single pair of COI primers that will guarantee a suffi cient rate of success across all amphibian and reptile taxa, or within major subclades of amphibians and reptiles, which means that the PCR amplifi cation strategy needs to be adjusted depending on the specifi c research question. In general, many more amphibian and reptile taxa have been sequenced for 16S rDNA, which for some purposes may be a suitable complementary marker, at least until a more comprehensive COI reference database becomes available. DNA barcoding has successfully been used to identify amphibian larval stages (tadpoles) in species-rich tropical assemblages. Tissue sampling, DNA extraction, and amplifi cation of COI is straightforward in amphibians and reptiles. Single primer pairs are likely to have a failure rate between 5 and 50\% if taxa of a wide taxonomic range are targeted; in such cases the use of primer cocktails or subsequent hierarchical usage of different primer pairs is necessary. If the target group is taxonomically limited, many studies have followed a strategy of designing specifi c primers which then allow an easy and reliable amplifi cation of all samples.
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Among the two most widely distributed duiker species, Philantomba monticola (Thunberg, 1789) and Philantomba maxwelli (C.H. Smith, 1827), the latter shows geographic variation in pelage color and body size. This issue was not investigated in detail so far, especially in the eastern region of its distribution area, notably due to the lack of material from the Dahomey Gap. We undertook a species-level revision of Philantomba in West Africa, notably including a series of specimens collected in Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Using morphological measurements (craniometry) and genetic data (two mitochondrial and three nuclear markers), we describe a new duiker species occurring in the Dahomey Gap (Togo, Benin) and the Niger delta, Philantomba walteri sp. nov. This discovery highlights the importance of the Dahomey Gap for the evolutionary history of the West African forest faunas. It also has conservation implications given that the new species is one of the main targets of the local bushmeat trade.
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