A new species of Eryx (Serpentes: Erycidae) from Iran

Abstract

We describe a new species of the genus Eryx Daudin, 1803 from southern Iran that is morphologically closely related to the Indian sand boa, E. johnii. The new species, Eryx sistanensis sp. nov. has a distribution range from Zabol in the Sistan Region to the southern parts of Sistan & Baluchistan, as well as Hormozgan Province of Iran. Morphologically, E. sistanensis sp. nov. differs from E. johnii by having fewer dorsal scale rows at midbody and the tail tip is not as blunt as E. johnii. The genetic distance (p-distance) between the new species and the Indian sand boa is considerable (9.1% for cytb and 11.8% for COI).

Kukri snakes Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826 of the Western Palearctic with the resurrection of Contia transcaspica Nikolsky, 1902 (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae)

“…Knowledge of the snake fauna of Middle and Southwest Asia (here considered the countries of Afghanistan, Iran, western China, Mongolia and the former Soviet Middle Asian republics fide Berg, 1931 ; Geptner, 1938 ; Chernov, 1949 ) has improved over the past decade as researchers continue to contribute species descriptions, range extensions, and natural history observations ( Wagner et al, 2016a ; Rajabizadeh, 2018 ; Shestopal & Rustamov, 2018a ; Shestopal & Rustamov, 2018b ; Orlov et al, 2018 ; Asadi et al, 2019 ; Rajabizadeh et al, 2020 ; Eskandarzadeh et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2021 ). Biogeographically, most snakes inhabiting Middle–Southwest Asia are elements of the Palearctic; however, a few species traditionally associated with the Indo-Malayan (Oriental) realm reach their westernmost distributional limits in this region ( Wagner et al, 2016b ; Orlov et al, 2018 ).…”