The Lizard Fauna of Kurdistan Province, Western Iran

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• Zahed Bahmani
• Rasoul Karamiani
• Ahmad Gharzi

Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

10.22067/ijab.v8i1.25568

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

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