The Lizard Fauna of Kurdistan Province, Western Iran

Abstract

Kurdistan Province in the western Iran possesses varied climatic and geographical conditions that led to rich biodiversity. An investigation on the status of lizards in this Province was carried out from June 2010 to September 2011. A total of 73 specimens were collected and identified. The collected specimens represented four families, 10 genera, and 14 species and subspecies, including Agamidae: Laudakia nupta nupta, Laudakia caucasia and Trapelus lessonae, Gekkonidae: Cyrtopodion scabrum, Asaccus kurdistanensis, Lacertidae: Eremias montanus, Eremias sp. (1) and Eremias sp. (2) (unknown taxa which may be related to E. persica complex), Apathya cappadocica urmiana, A. c. muhtari, Lacerta media media and Ophisops elegans, Scinicidae: Eumeces schneideri princeps and Trachylepis aurata transcaucasica. With respect to the data which was reported by Rastegar-Pouyani et al. (2008) and Anderson (1999) Eremias sp. (1) and Eremias sp. (2) may belong to two new taxa, Apathya cappadocica muhtari is a new record from Iran, and also Eremias montanus is a new record from Kurdistan Province. The Lacertidae with six species, showed the highest diversity among the families represented here.

Keywords

• fauna
• reptiles
• sauria
• kurdistan province
• western iran