Ablepharus pannonicus ( Fitzinger, 1824 )

Šmíd, Jiří, Moravec, Jiří, Kodym, Petr, Kratochvíl, Lukáš, Yousefkhani, Seyyed Saeed Hosseinian, Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar & Frynta, Daniel, 2014, Annotated checklist and distribution of the lizards of Iran, Zootaxa 3855 (1), pp. 1-97 : 43

Ablepharus pannonicus ( Fitzinger, 1824)

HOLOTYPE. ZIL, collection number unknown ( Fuhn 1969a).

TYPE LOCALITY. Buchara [Bukhara], Bukhara Prov., Uzbekistan.

DISTRIBUTION. A discontinuous distribution; beside the main range covering the Mesopotamian Plain, Azerbaijan, Iran, Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, NW Pakistan, and India there are isolated populations in SW Saudi Arabia, N Yemen and N Oman.

DISTRIBUTION IN IRAN. Fig. 128 . All provinces W of the Zagros, areas along the southern Zagros, Alborz, and Kopet Dagh ranges and SE Iranian provinces (South Khorasan, Kerman, Sistan and Baluchistan). Apparently absent in the central Iranian desert systems .

HABITAT. Usually grassy areas and cultivated gardens near irrigation ditches. The species often hides in the grass tussocks and under the litter of dead leaves or pine needles.

REMARKS. Both forms described from Iran by Nikolsky (1907) — A. persicus (type locality Schachrud [Shahrud], Semnan Prov.) and A. brandtii var. brevipes (type locality Dech-i-Diz and Karun River, Khuzestan Prov.) are considered younger synonyms of A. pannonicus ( Fuhn 1969a; Bauer et al. 2003). Ablepharus grayanus (Stoliczka) from Afghanistan and Pakistan formerly regarded a subspecies of A. pannonicus ( Fuhn 1969a) is currently recognized as a full species.

REFERENCES. Nikolsky (1907); Fuhn (1969a, b); Anderson (1999).

Figures

FIGURES 128–133. 128. Ablepharus pannonicus. 129. Chalcides ocellatus. 130. Eumeces schneiderii. Red symbols represent records of E. s. princeps, blue of E. s. zarudnyi and blue square denotes its type locality, violet question mark indicates dubious data for E. blythianus. 131. Eurylepis taeniolatus. 132. Ophiomorus blanfordii. 133. Ophiomorus brevipes.