Hemorrhois ravergieri ( Menetries , 1832)

Jablonski, Daniel, Regan, John M., Holzheuser, Chace, Farooqi, Javeed, Basit, Abdul & Masroor, Rafaqat, 2019, Additional data to the herpetofauna of Afghanistan, Herpetozoa 32, pp. 177-193 : 177

Hemorrhois ravergieri ( Menetries, 1832)

Distribution in Afghanistan.

This species has a scattered distribution with most of the records from the north-eastern part of the country. It is currently known from the provinces Badakhshan, Herat, Kabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, Nuristan, Paktia ( Wagner et al. 2016).

Our records

( Fig. 8 ). 1 - Jurm, Badakhshan (5 October 2011), one adult individual ( Fig. 9A ) observed in the early afternoon, sunning itself on the wall of a mini-hydro power intake canal near the town. It appeared to be approx. 1.2 metres long; 2 - Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul (17 July 2011), one adult individual observed in rocky habitat in the vicinity of the camp.

Remarks.

Both our records represent new locality data although this species is known to occur in these provinces. The record from Camp Dubs - Kabul is erroneously assigned to Daboia russelli (Shaw & Nodder, 1797) by Regan (2017; see p. 38), but that species of viper has never been recorded or mentioned in available literature as a member of fauna in Afghanistan.

Figures

Figure 8. Updated herpetofaunistic records from Afghanistan (white dots: Wagner et al. 2016; red dots: data of this study). Hemorrhois ravergieri: 1 - Jurm, Badakhshan; 2 - Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul. Spalerosophis diadema: 1 - Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul; 2 - Spin Boldak, Kandahar. Psammophis schokari: Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul.

Figure 9. Observed species of Colubridae and Viperidae families from Afghanistan: A - adult individual of Hemorrhois ravergieri from Jurm, Badakhshan (photo by Glyn Morris); B - subadult individual of Platyceps rhodorachis from Kandahar, Air Base, Kandahar; C - subadult individual of P. rhodorachis (striped phenotype) from Camp Mike Spann Chapel, Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh; D - adult individual of Ptyas mucosa from Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul; E - subadult individual of Spalerosophis diadema from Camp Dubs - Kabul, Kabul; F - subadult individual of S. diadema from Spin Boldak, Kandahar (photo by Ron Savage); G, H - subadult and adult individual of Echis carinatus from Kandahar, Air Base, Kandahar.