Mesalina watsonana (Stoliczka, 1872)

Jablonski, Daniel, Regan, John M., Holzheuser, Chace, Farooqi, Javeed, Basit, Abdul & Masroor, Rafaqat, 2019, Additional data to the herpetofauna of Afghanistan, Herpetozoa 32, pp. 177-193 : 177

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.32.e38171

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:54B962BC-DDA5-44CB-84C3-3A7B6A8AB0D0

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/308A5284-BEE4-5C2D-AA09-7E24A3CAD5EF

treatment provided by

Herpetozoa by Pensoft

scientific name

Mesalina watsonana (Stoliczka, 1872)
status

 

Mesalina watsonana (Stoliczka, 1872)

Distribution in Afghanistan.

A common species with several records mainly from south of the Hindu Kush range. It is currently known from the following provinces: Badakhshan, Farah, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Logar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Paktika, Parwan, Uruzgan, Wardak and Zabul ( Wagner et al. 2016; Jablonski et al. 2019; Fig. 5 View Figure 5 ). Two localities mentioned by Wagner et al. (2016): " 40 km NE of Kandhar, on Tarnak River (CAS 90757-60 " and " Mil-Karez, Pol-Mil (MZLU L958/3230) " (p. 498) are not presented with coordinates. Therefore, they are absent from the map.

Our records

( Fig. 5 View Figure 5 ). 1 - Lashkargāh, Helmand (3 September 2009), dozens of adult individuals in the semi-desert habitat; 2 - Kandahar, Air Base, Kandahar (22 October 2010), dozens of adult individuals ( Fig. 7E, F View Figure 7 ) in the semi-desert with bushes near the runway.

Remarks.

Both records presented here are new locality data with original coordinates. However, they clearly correspond with the known species range in Afghanistan. Regan (2017) listed this species as " Mesalina guttulata " (pp. 30-31). This name was superseded by M. watsonana after being upgraded to full species status from a subspecies of M. guttulata .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Squamata

Family

Lacertidae

Genus

Mesalina