Hidden diversity in the Podarcis tauricus (Sauria, Lacertidae) species subgroup in the light of multilocus phylogeny and species delimitation.

•Podarcis tauricus species subgroup is a monophyletic group with several cases of hidden diversity.•The species delimitation approaches uncovered nine distinct species within the P. tauricus species subgroup.•We suggest synonymizing P. g. gaigeae and P. g. weigandi, as well as P. t. tauricus and P. t. thasopulae, respectively.•We propose elevating P. t. tauricus and P. g. gaigeae at species level without subspecies division.•We nominate distinct Albanian-Greek clade called Podarcis ionicus species complex with five Unconfirmed Candidate Species.