Anguidae

Anguis Linnaeus, 1758

Anguis colchica (Nordmann, 1840)

SYNTYPES. Not located (Anderson 1999); Holotype ZIS 4829 (A. c. orientalis).

TYPE LOCALITY. “Abasien” [= Kuban’ region, S Russia] and “Mingrelien” [= region in W Georgia]. DISTRIBUTION. E Europe and European Russia through E Balkans, N Turkey and Transcaucasia to N Iran. DISTRIBUTION IN IRAN. Fig. 24. Along the Caspian coast, the distribution stretches eastwards up to the central Kopet Dagh. No record from the Caspian coast is more than 60 km inland from the shoreline; the species is there limited to the foothills and northern slopes of the Alborz.

HABITAT. Deciduous Hyrcanian forests in the Alborz, in or on the leaf litter on the ground, under stones and logs. REMARKS. Anguis colchica was assigned the status of full species by Gvoždík et al. (2010). In the same publication the Iranian populations were attributed to the subspecies A. c. orientalis Anderson.

REFERENCES. Anderson (1999); Gvoždík et al. (2010).