-Examination and analysis of over 140 specimens of the endangered tortoise Testudo kleinmanni from all areas within its historical distribution on mainland Africa and the Levant confirmed the existence of two allopatric species in this region. A new tortoise species, occurring east of the Nile delta, and restricted today to the Negev desert (Israel) and to northern Sinai (Egypt), is described. The new species has typically a rounded, considerably wide midbody and a very wide posterior carapace combined with very narrow vertebrals, a relatively modest elevation of the anterior plastron lobe, a gently sloping upper carapacial arch, which is posteriorly depressed, relatively flared, serrated edges of free marginals, a flared supracaudal in both sexes, usually not running in parallel with the posterior carapacial arch, and a short supracaudal in females, among other readily verifiable characteristics. Reflecting these relatively great differences in shell morphology, the new species differs from T kleinmanni by 17 (male) and 18 (female) morphometric character ratios. The new species is additionally fully diagnosable by using Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Function Analysis with cross-validation. The previous lectotype designation for T kleinmanni was not based on a syntype and is, therefore, invalid. A new lectotype is designated. Both species are endangered because of loss of habitat and other anthropogenic factors. The new species is additionally threatened by an introduction programme involving the release of confiscated T. kleinmanni into northern Sinai. rnal of Herpetol gy, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 567-582, 2001 yright 20 1 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles The Egyptian tortoise Testudo kleinmanni Lortet, 1883-the smallest representative of circummediterranean Testudo-was described from material collected by E. Kleinmann in 1875 near Alexandria in Egypt (Lortet, 1883, 1887). However, the name was considered a junior synonym of Testudo leithii Guinther, 1869 until the publications by Mertens and Wermuth (1955) and Loveridge and Williams (1957). These authors concluded independently that the name leithii was already preoccupied by a fossil pelomedusid turtle described from India in 1852. Additionally, the type of Testudo leithii was claimed to originate from Sindh, Baluchistan (Gtinther, 1869), modern northwestern Pakistan, where the species has never been found again. Loveridge and Williams (1957) considered this type locality an error, but this geographic aspect already led Lortet (1887), who knew the description but had not seen the type, to doubt the gyptian tortoise Testudo kleinmanni Lor, 1883-the smallest repres ntative of circumtype locality of leithii and to speculate that kleinmanni and leithii might represent the same species. Lortet (1883) described T kleinmanni without designating a holotype, but some of the syntypes still survive in a few collections, notably in the Lyon museum where he worked. Mertens (1967) listed, or designated (Iverson, 1992), a lectotype (SMF 7810; semiadult male; Alexandria; leg. and don. Lortet 1881) citing Boettger (1893), who already refered to the same specimen as Typus von T. kleinmanni, which could either be taken as an earlier lectotype designation according to Article 74 of the old ICZN Code (Anonymous, 1964) or as listing of a presumed syntype. In any case, the only real (physical and traceable) voucher specimens on which Lortet's (1883) description is based, that is, syntypes according to the Articles 72 and 73 of the old Code (Anonymous, 1964)-as indicated by two accounts (Lortet, 1883, 1887)-are those collected late t at leint e sa e spel i a i it , s e o t e s nll i s, otabl e . erte s (I s , 92), a lec567 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.146 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 05:35:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms