Felis margarita Loche, 1858 . Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris, ser. 2, 10:49.

TYPE LOCALITY: "environs de Négonca (Sahara)" (Algeria] .

DISTRIBUTION: Deserts in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudia Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

STATUS: CITES - Appendix II; U.S. ESA and IUCN - Endangered as F. margarita scheffeli .

SYNONYMS: airensis Pocock, 1938; harrisoni Hemmer, Grubb, and Groves, 1976; margaritae Trouessart, 1897; margueritei Trouessart, 1904; meinertzhageni Pocock, 1938; scheffeli Hemmer, 1974; thinobius Ognev, 1927.

COMMENTS: Revised by Schauenberg (1974) and Hemmer et al. (1976). F. marginata Gray, 1867, is an incorrect subsequent spelling. Pocock (1951) and Schauenberg (1974) included Eremaelurus thinobia, which was recognized as separate by Haltenorth (1953) and Weigel (1961), but see discussion by Hemmer et al. (1976). Krâl and Zima (1980) suggested this species was closely related to O. manul .