by Souad Hraoui-Bloquet, Riyad A. Sadek, Roberto Sindaco, and Alberto Venchi
Abstract
This paper reports more than 400 original data on the Lebanese herpetofauna (covering 5 amphibians and 44 reptiles), deriving from museum collections and recent field observations. The most interesting data concern: (a) Cyrtopodion amictopholis, a species known only from Mt. Hermon, reported for the first time from Mt. Lebanon Range; (b) Lacerta fraasi, previously considered endemic to the Mount Lebanon Range, also recorded from Antilebanon; (c) the occurrence of Macrovipera lebetina is confirmed with certainty from two localities in the north. New records are given for many species known in Lebanon only on the basis of very few and often old reports.
Introduction
The herpetofanna of Lebanon is rich in term of number of species, but their distribution is relatively poorly known. In fact, niost of tlie taxa are known only li-otn a limited number of localities. This paper is a first step towards a revised checklist of the Lebanese herpetofauna (see IN DEN BOSCH1 99S), and it sunmarisesth e results of the recent fieldwork by the authors, who have also brouglit together niost of tlie distributional data available in the literature. 111 this preliminary paper. we present more than 400 unpublished data museum and field data. As the aim of this paper is to enhance our knowledge of the distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles, notes are limited to the distribution aspects.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication Date: 2002
Publication Name: Zoology in the Middle Volume 27, Issue 1, 2002
Source: http://www.academia.edu
