Lacerta parva Boulenger, a new lizard species for the European fauna

Abstract

89 Lacerta parva Boulenger, a new lizard species for the European fauna Alberto Venchi1, Marco A. Bologna2 1 c/o Museo di Zoologia, Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Viale dell'Universita 32, 00100 Roma, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Biologia, Terza Universita degli Studi di Roma, Via Ostiense, 173, 00154 Roma, Italy During a recent expedition to Turkish Thrace, one of us (MB) collected the lizard, Lacerta parva Boulenger, 1887, which has never been recorded before in Europe. This Anatolian species is included in some general reviews and field guides to European reptiles, but all Caucasian records cited are from Asia. Lacerta parva is endemic to the Anatolian peninsula and Transcaucasia. After the original description, the most significant contributions on this species were published by Boulenger (1916, 1920), Lantz and Cyr6n (1939) and a general review, including all published records, was carried out by Peters (1962), who made a large morphological analysis of characters and variability. More recently, other faunistic and ecological records have been given by Clark and Clark (1973), and Ba§oglu and Baran (1977). At present, more than forty localities in Asiatic Turkey and the Caucasian Republics of Armenia, Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan, have been published. Other specimens have been collected in Asiatic Turkey during expeditions from Rome Universities. These specimens are preserved in the herpetological collection of the Zoological Museum, Rome La Sapienza University, and others in the Museo civico di Storia naturale di Carmagnola, Turin. One male was collected in the Thracian locality of Emirali (vilayet Tekirdag, m 250, 2 May 1991). Other Anatolian localities (Kutahya, vil. Kiitahya; Afyon airport, vil. Afyon; between Korkuteli and Kemer near Soguk, vil. Antalya; Huyuk between Nigde and Kayseri, vil. Nigde; 25 km N of qamardi, near Elmali, vil. Nigde; Kizinilis geqidi, vil. Tokat; W slope of the Bfyfk Kizil dag, vil. Sivas) are located between 950 and 1700 m; the specimens were collected in April and May. The record from Kftahya is a little more to the west than others published, but it is positioned in the same area of West Anatolia. The Thracian locality clearly enlarges the distribution of L. parva to west and demonstrates the existence of European populations. It is suggested that unrecorded populations may also be found in the intermediate West Anatolian regions of Bursa, Balikesir and qanakkale, but the ecological characteristics of the coastal areas of these provinces may not be favourable to the presence of the species. All localities from which L. parva has been cited (Peters, 1962; Clark and Clark, 1973), or collected by us, are characterized as steppe habitats. Until now, no Mediterranean records have been cited; the most southern localities of Lycian and Cylician Taurus are