Felis margarita Loche 1858

Felis margarita Loche 1858, Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris, ser. 2, 10: 49.

Type Locality: "environs de Négonca (Sahara)" [Algeria].

Vernacular Names: Sand Cat.

Subspecies::

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. margarita Loche 1858

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. airensis Pocock 1951

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. harrisoni Hemmer, Grubb and Groves 1976

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. meinertzhageni Pocock 1938

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. scheffeli Hemmer 1974

Subspecies Felis margarita subsp. thinobia Ognev 1927

Distribution: Afghanistan (?), Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Iran (?), Iraq (?), Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya (?), Mali (?), Mauritania (?), Morocco, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan (?), Syrian Arab Republic (?), Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara (?), Yemen.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II; U.S. ESA – Endangered as F. margarita scheffeli; IUCN – Near Threatened.

Discussion: Revised by Schauenberg (1974) and Hemmer et al. (1976). Pocock (1951) and Schauenberg (1974) included Eremaelurus thinobia, which was recognized as separate by Haltenorth (1953) and Weigel (1961), but see discussion by Hemmer et al. (1976). Král and Zima (1980) suggested this species was closely related to F. manul . Subspecies allocated according to G. M. Allen (1939), Pocock (1951), Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951), Schauenberg (1974), and Hemmer et al. (1976).