Corresponding author: Daniel Jablonski (
Academic editor: Aaron Bauer
Afghanistan is a herpetologically understudied country with few published papers since the end of “Afghanistan’s Golden Age” from the 1930s to the 1970s. Although a detailed checklist of the herpetofauna of the country, based on exploration of herpetodiversity using biodiversity archives, has been published recently, there still exist additional historical data that have not been considered. This is the case for a so far unknown collection of lizards from Afghanistan deposited in the herpetological collection of the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković at the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia. The material comes from field research conducted in 1972 and contains 27 specimens in seven lizard genera representing four families (
Jablonski D, Urošević A, Andjelković M, Džukić G (2019) An unknown collection of lizards from Afghanistan. ZooKeys 843: 129–147.
A transition zone between the Palearctic and Oriental faunas, a species hotspot for some amphibians and reptiles (
Because distribution data relating to the herpetofauna of Afghanistan are very important from a biogeographical point of view and comparative material from this country is rare, we have evaluated particular species and specimens stored in the Belgrade collection and compared them with information and distribution data from
This material comes from a field trip to Afghanistan that was conducted between 3 and 25 August 1972 by Vojislav Vasić. The specimens of herpetofauna were collected primarily during different ornithological field trips inside the country (see
A basic morphometry of lizard in the collection in mm. For abbreviations of morphological features see Material and Methods. Voucher number corresponds to the jar label number in the Herpetological Collection of the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Abbreviations as given in Materials and methods.
Voucher No. | Specimen No. | Species |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
– |
|
45.18 | 36.96 | 5.46 | 61.84 | 7.20 | 11.63 | 8.87 | 8.88 | 14.67 | 14.65 |
|
– |
|
78.55 | 66.85 | 6.98 | 110.40 | 8.86 | 14.21 | 8.89 | 8.91 | 12.31 | 12.33 |
|
– |
|
82.59 | 65.08 | 9.27 | – | 12.05 | 19.72 | 13.93 | 14.02 | 16.12 | 16.09 |
|
753/1 |
|
77.43 | 61.35 | 10.31 | 101.66 | 15.16 | 20.28 | 10.76 + 9.56 | 10.64 + 9.86 | 17.20 + 16.54 | 16.20 + 16.04 |
|
753/2 |
|
68.78 | 51.34 | 9.00 | – | 15.38 | 20.09 | 10.98 + 9.52 | 10.12 + 9.52 | 18.04 + 18.13 | 18.08 + 18.05 |
|
753/3 |
|
73.23 | 57.89 | 10.90 | 125.36 | 16.74 | 19.62 | 12.16 + 10.51 | 12.19 + 10.52 | 17.16 + 16.99 | 16.81 + 17.13 |
|
753/4 |
|
80.50 | 63.41 | 12.20 | 137.35 | 18.30 | 20.43 | 13.77 + 10.94 | 13.16 + 10.87 | 20.50 + 17.43 | 20.53 + 17.38 |
|
779/1 |
|
48.46 | 37.29 | 4.18 | 60.14 | 5.54 | 8.56 | 7.50 | 7.52 | 10.42 | 10.38 |
|
779/2 |
|
45.38 | 35.53 | 5.04 | – | 6.52 | 10.24 | 7.81 | 7.85 | 12.29 | 12.27 |
|
795/1 |
|
62.30 | 46.93 | 6.96 | – | 12.86 | 17.23 | 8.77 + 9.88 | 8.62 + 9.89 | 14.22 + 12.67 | 13.80 + 12.12 |
|
795/2 |
|
62.93 | 46.89 | 7.26 | 89.58 | 15.30 | 18.07 | 8.12 + 10.26 | 8.41 + 10.70 | 14.36 + 13.15 | 14.48 + 13.46 |
|
795/3 |
|
39.99 | 30.63 | 3.86 | 52.00 | 9.02 | 12.15 | 6.31 + 7.06 | 6.25 + 7.07 | 9.31 + 8.49 | 9.42 + 8.48 |
|
795/4 |
|
58.33 | 43.60 | 5.15 | 79.44 | 12.40 | 16.18 | 7.52 + 10.02 | 7.59 + 10.12 | 14.25 + 12.56 | 14.20 + 12.52 |
|
795/5 |
|
64.17 | 47.41 | 6.70 | 76.07 | 13.03 | 16.62 | 7.48 + 11.06 | 7.46 + 10.90 | 15.36 + 13.30 | 15.19 + 13.62 |
|
795/6 |
|
56.03 | 41.25 | 5.16 | 75.27 | 11.87 | 15.43 | 6.36 + 8.94 | 6.19 + 8.90 | 12.15 + 13.13 | 12.10 + 13.19 |
|
795/7 |
|
48.05 | 35.38 | 4.63 | – | 10.71 | 14.04 | 6.24 + 8.23 | 6.34 + 8.28 | 12.72 + 11.21 | 12.82 + 11.29 |
|
795/8 |
|
47.87 | 36.93 | 4.68 | – | 10.73 | 13.64 | 6.26 + 7.88 | 6.20 + 7.87 | 10.85 + 10.47 | 10.80 + 10.32 |
|
795/9 |
|
64.21 | 47.95 | 5.99 | 90.76 | 12.68 | 16.98 | 8.96 + 10.84 | 8.86 + 10.22 | 16.60 + 14.08 | 16.25 + 14.04 |
|
795/10 |
|
55.53 | 41.65 | 4.90 | – | 11.04 | 15.27 | 7.43 + 8.51 | 7.46 + 8.48 | 12.79 + 11.16 | 12.46 + 11.43 |
|
887/A |
|
68.64 | 50.94 | 9.30 | 75.89 | 17.22 | 19.89 | 9.82 + 10.31 | 9.87 + 12.07 | 15.80 + 16.91 | 15.24 + 15.89 |
|
887/B |
|
34.18 | 22.03 | 3.97 | 41.89 | 9.58 | 11.01 | 5.63 + 5.62 | 5.30 + 5.58 | 8.08 + 8.72 | 8.63 + 8.62 |
|
912/1 |
|
131.06 | 104.55 | 17.33 | – | 22.58 | 32.77 | 18.10 + 19.18 | 18.45 + 19.20 | 30.41 + 27.43 | 31.07 + 27.93 |
|
912/2 |
|
88.21 | 67.29 | 12.43 | 137.44 | 19.56 | 24.84 | 13.88 + 14.38 | 13.66 + 14.34 | 24.33 + 22.63 | 23.21 + 21.53 |
|
912/3 |
|
138.74 | 110.38 | 17.83 | 158.23 | 28.78 | 35.81 | 22.34 + 17.95 | 21.46 + 17.05 | 31.21 + 29.24 | 31.75 + 29.35 |
|
912/4 |
|
103.70 | 80.87 | 15.07 | – | 22.08 | 28.87 | 18.17 + 14.75 | 17.55 + 15.00 | 27.70 + 25.89 | 26.48 + 25.80 |
|
912/5 |
|
90.99 | 69.73 | 14.00 | – | 18.25 | 24.29 | 15.12 + 13.22 | 15.13 + 13.28 | 25.32 + 21.78 | 24.71 + 21.69 |
|
912/6 |
|
117.96 | 95.41 | 18.25 | – | 25.05 | 31.52 | 18.91 + 15.38 | 18.68 + 15.94 | 31.96 + 28.50 | 31.58 + 28.70 |
Fig.
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Distribution of all species forming
We would like to thank Vojislav Vasić for collecting the specimens and donating them to the Herpetological Collection of the Institute for the Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade, Serbia, R Masroor, R Nazarov, VF Orlova, and J Šmíd for their opinions on the identification of collected specimens and P Wagner for his comments as a reviewer. A special thanks is given to the Editor, AM Bauer, for his help with English and style of the manuscript. The work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-15-0147 (DJ) and Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, grant no. 173043 (AU, MA, and GD). We dedicate this work to the Afghan people.
Figures S1–S19
Adobe Acrobat Document (.pdf)
Additional specimens of lizards collected in Afghanistan and their localities in the country from the herpetological collection of the Institute for Biological research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.