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Home , Ablepharus, Ablepharus kitaibelii, Bjni, Kotayk (village), Kotayk Province, Teghenik

Herpetology Notes, volume 12: 475-477 (2019) (published online on 13 May 2019)

Rediscovery of Chernov’s ( chernovi Darevsky, 1953) in

Marine Arakelyan1*, Vasil Ananian2, and Ruzanna Petrosyan1

Armenia has a diverse herpetofauna with 51 Thus, after three decades, it was decided to clarify the belonging to 11 families and 29 genera (Arakelyan et status of the Chernov’s skink for Armenia. For this, the al, 2011). Among the four species of (Scincidae) survey was conducted in April 2015, and then repeated distributed in Armenia, a new species, the Chernov’s over the next two years in selected location of suitable skink (Ablepharus chernovi chernovi), was first habitat of the species. According to the description of discovered and described by I.S. Darevsky on the habitat of I.S. Darevsky (1953), we carefully looked for basis of five specimens collected in the “sel. Teghit, this species in area of its distribution under small heaps Ashtarakskii , Armyanskaya SSR, Teghit village, of stones surrounding the wheat fields in zone of dry region, Armenia” [= vicinity of mountain steppe (1500–1700 m). As result, we found village, River valley, Province, only two individuals of Chernov’s skink (one male with Armenia] (Darevsky, 1953). The nominal subspecies orange breeding colour of dorsum, SVL: 47 mm (Fig. 2) (A. c. chernovi) was also found in Eastern Anatolia and, and one sub-adult female with grey colour of dorsum, possibly, in Northern (Sindaco and Jeremcenko, SVL: 34.5 mm), both on 21 April 2015 at site of c. 4.5 ha 2008). Apart from the nominate subspecies, three other between the northern outskirts of the village subspecies (A. c. eiselti, A. c. isauriensis, A. c. ressli) and the western parts of the Teghenik village, noted as were described in by J.F. Schmidtler (Schmidtler, type locality. The individuals were captured between 1997). 10:00–14:00h, and after measuring and photographing, The Chernov’s skink is one of the rarest and least were released in nature. The weather was sunny with known species in Armenia. Few data on the temperatures of 25°C in the sun and 23°C in shadow, distribution and ecology of this species have been and 20% relative air humidity. The habitat is situated in published (Arakelyan et al., 2011; Baran and Atatur, a mountain-steppe zone (40.420469°N, 44.566611°E, 1998; Tuniev et al., 2014, Yildirim et al., 2017). The 1600 m a.s.l.), on the gentle slopes covered with short main report on distribution of A. chernovi in Armenia grass and sparsely distributed bushes of predominantly derived from Darevsky’s (1957) doctoral thesis. Rosa sp.. The area is characterized with rich cover According to data of I.S. Darevsky (1957), a single of small to medium stones on slope, and mosaic of population of Chernov’s skink occupies the extremely crop fields with numerous small heaps of stones at small area in the surrounding Karashamb, , their edges collected by farmers from the fields. The Teghenik and villages (Fig 1). Since then, only four individuals were hiding under medium-sized stones at c. other individuals of A. chernovi were registered in the 200 m distance from each other. During the fieldwork, type locality, all in the period of 1984 -1987 (Szczerbak, other were encountered in the same area: 2003). Eryx jaculus, Elaphe suaromates, Pelias eriwanensis and Lacerta media were found syntopically with A. chernovi. Subsequent surveys during next two years at the same area has not resulted any observation. Our survey confirmed the presence of A. chernovi as a part of herpetofauna of Armenia. Yet, the habitat 1 Faculty of Biology, State University, 1 Alex Manoogian Str., 0025, Yerevan, Armenia. of this species is extremely small and fragmented, and 2 179 Bashinjaghyan Str., apt. 23, 0078, Yerevan, Armenia. density of population seems to be very low. Farming * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] and grazing appear to significantly threaten the integrity 476 Marine Arakelyan et al.

Figure 1. The known geographical distribution (red line) and new record of 2015 (red point) of Ablepharus chernovi in Armenia.

of the species’ habitat. Due to rarity of in the wild (2010), “skink habitats were affected by intense human and high anthropogenic pressure on the area of their pressure and numerous surveys turned out to be fruitless. local distribution, Chernov’s skink is under the threat At present, some skink sites are totally deteriorated of total disappearance from territory of Armenia. A. or encroached”. However, because this species is chernovi was included in the Red Data Books of USSR generally common in other countries, in the IUCN Red (1984). Currently, Chernov’s skink is listed in Red List of Threatened Species ver. 3.1, it is listed as “Least Book of Armenia (2010) as Critically Endangered (CR) Concern” (Tok et al., 2009). Both, in-situ and ex-situ based on A2ac B2ab (ii,iii) criteria, according to IUCN conservation measures, for the protection of the species’ criteria categories. Based on the Red Book Armenia critically endangered population are urgent in Armenia.

Acknowledgments. We thank to Razmik Sargsyan for help in fieldwork. We also thank the anonymous reviewer for careful reading the manuscript and helpful comments.

References

Arakelyan, M., Danielyan, F., Corti, C., Sindaco, R., Leviton, A. (2011): Herpetofauna of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Salt Lake City, SSAR, pp. 154. Baran, I., Atatür, M. (1998): Turkish Herpetofauna (Amphibians and Reptiles). Ankara Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Environment, pp. 214. Darevsky, I.S. (1953): Novii vid gologlaza iz Armenyaskoi SSR (Ablepharus chernovi sp.nov. Reptilia, Sauria). [New species of lidless skink from ArmSSR (Ablepharus chernovi sp.nov. Reptilia, Sauria)] Bull. Mosc. Obsh. Isp. Prir, otd. Biol. 63: 39- Figure 2. Captured male of Ablepharus chernovi chernovi. 41. [in Russian]. Rediscovery of Chernov’s skink in Armenia 477

Darevsky, I.S. (1957): The fauna of reptiles of Armenia and its zoogeographical analysis. Ph.D. Dissertation, Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences of Armenian SSR, Yerevan, pp. 484. [in Russian]. Sindaco, R., Jeremcenko, V.K. (2008): The reptiles of the Western Palearctic. Latina, Italy. Edizioni Belvedere, pp. 579. Schmidtler, J.F. (1997): Die - Gruppe in Südanatolien und benachbarten Gebieten (: Sauria: Scincidae). Herpetozoa 10: 35-62. Szczerbak, N.N. (2003): Guide to the Reptiles of the Eastern Palearctic. Malabar, Florida, Krieger Publishing Co., pp. 260. The Red Book of of the Republic of Armenia. (2010): Animals. Yerevan, Ministry of Nature Protection Press, pp. 368. The Red Data Books of USSR. (1984): Rare and endangered species of animals and plants (1984): Moscow, Lesnaya promyshlenost Publ. pp. 480. [in Russian]. Tok, V., Ugurtas, I.H., Sevinç, M., Böhme, W., Crochet, P.-A., Nilson, G., Akarsu, F., Lymberakis, P. (2009): Ablepharus chernovi (errata version published in 2016). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T164622A86443519. http:// dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009.RLTS.T164622A5912863. en. Downloaded on 09 March 2019. Tuniyev, B.S., Tuniyev, S.B., Avcı, A., Ilgaz, Ç. (2014): Herpetological studies in Eastern and North-Eastern Turkey. Current Studies in Herpetology 14: 44–53. Yildirim, E., Kumlutaş, Y., Candan, K. & Ilgaz, Ç. (2017): Comparative skeletal osteology of three species of Scincid lizards (: Ablepharus) from Turkey Vertebrate Zoology 67: 251-259.

Accepted by Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani