Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814)

Sindaco, Roberto & Rossi, Roberta, 2020, Annotated checklist of the herpetofauna (Amphibia, Reptilia) of Lefkada Island (Ionian Islands, Greece), Natural History Sciences 7 (2), pp. 57-68 : 61

Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814)

Podarcis tauricus ionicus (Lehrs, 1902)

The apparent absence of this lizard on Lefkada was already highlighted by Werner (1894: 229, 1929: 475), who stated that “on Santa Maura, despite my best efforts, I never found it anywhere”. The only record is due to Broggi (1986: 30), who found this lizard near Vasiliki. After this record, there was no further observation apart from a doubtful citizen science record for the same locality, which deserves confirmation, as the quality of the image does not allow for a reliable identification.

The rarity of this species on Lefkada is surprising, since it is widespread on the other Ionian Islands (Psonis et al., 2017); it cannot be excluded that the occurrence in Vasiliki (a tourist site with ferry terminal from Cephalonia, where P. tauricus is common) is due to a human mediated introduction.