Podarcis muralis ( Laurenti, 1768:61 )

Bauer, Aaron M., DeBoer, Jonathan C. & Taylor, Dylan J., 2017, Atlas of the Reptiles of Libya, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 64 (8), pp. 155-318 : 267

Podarcis muralis ( Laurenti, 1768:61)

This species was first listed for the Libyan fauna by von Martens (1883), based on an identification made by Reichenow. The record was repeated by Ghigi (1913). Calabresi (1923) also mentioned this species from Benghazi, but did not believe the record to be “sufficiently validated.” It is widely distributed across southern and parts of central Europe and into Anatolia. The only Podarcis with a natural distributional range approaching Libya is P. vaucheri (Boulenger, 1905) , which ranges from Morocco to northern Tunisia. There is also a record of Podarcis sicula from Tripoli (BMNH 1965.1132). We assume that all records of Podarcis from Libya represent introduced individuals. As only a few scattered records exist, there is no evidence that these wall lizards have established viable populations in the country.