Additional records for Ophiomorus brevipes (Blanford, 1874) and O. tridactylus (Blyth, 1853) (Sauria: Scincidae) from Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Southeastern Iran

Abstract

The burrowing skinks of the genus Ophiomorus Duméril and Bibron, 1839 with eleven described species distributed from Greece through southwest Asia to northwestern India (Anderson and Leviton, 1966; Nilson and Andrén, 1978; Anderson, 1999; Kazemi et al., 2011). The main diagnostic exo-morphological characteristics of these lovely lizards are described as follows: body elongate; limbs greatly reduced or absent; eye small, lower eyelid with an undivided, transparent disc; ear opening absent or hidden; “nostril between an upper and lower nasal scale, both of uncertain homology; prefrontal scales separated; frontal scale hour-glass shaped due to constriction of frontal by first supraocular (except in O. latastii); frontoparietal and parietal distinct; postmentals two; dorsal and lateral body scales with one or sometimes two (in tandem) minute pits in central posterior part of scale” (Boulenger, 1887; Anderson and Leviton, 1966; Anderson, 1999; Greer and Wilson, 2001). Iran hosts seven species of the genus including the Iranian endemic species namely Ophiomorus maranjabensis Kazemi, Farhadi Qomi, Kami and Anderson, 2011; O. nuchalis Nilson and Andrén, 1978; O. persicus (Steindachner, 1867); O. streeti Anderson and Leviton, 1966; and native species including O. blanfordii (Boulenger, 1887) from Pakistan and Iran; O. brevipes (Blanford, 1874) from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan; and O. tridactylus (Blyth, 1853) from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan (Leviton, 1959; Anderson and Leviton, 1966; Anderson, 1999; Khan, 2004; Gholamifard, 2011; Kazemi et al., 2011). Šmíd et al. (2014) recorded eight species of Ophiomorus for Iran, but listed seven species of the genus (the above mentioned species). Based on Ananjeva et al. (2006) perhaps the eighth member of the genus Ophiomorus for the herpetofauna of Iran is O. chernovi Anderson and Leviton, 1966, as they included it for northeast of Iran (“on the left bank of Tejen River” of Iran), whereas the holotype of this rare species is from “Pul-i-Khatun, at confluence of Geshef-Rud and Hari-Rud” in Turkmen, near the Iranian and Afghan borders (Anderson and Leviton, 1966). However O. chernovi not listed among the Iranian lizards by Anderson (1999), Rastegar-Pouyani et al. (2008), Kamali (2013), and Šmíd et al. (2014). Archive of SID