Eryx sistanensis Eskandarzadeh & Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani & Zargan & Hajinourmohamadi & Nazarov & Sami & Rajabizadeh & Nabizadeh & Navaian 2020, sp. nov.

• Published in: Bezbednost, Beograd
• Main Authors: Eskandarzadeh, Naeimeh, Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar, Zargan, Jamil, Hajinourmohamadi, Ashkan, Nazarov, Roman A., Sami, Soheil, Rajabizadeh, Mahdi, Nabizadeh, Hossein, Navaian, Majid
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Reptilia; Squamata; Boidae; Eryx; Eryx sistanensis; sami
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/3798896; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3798896

Eryx sistanensis sp. nov. (Figs. 2–6) Holotype: HCHSU 6469, a juvenile female, collected from Jahan-abad, about 20 km east of Zabol in Sistan & Baluchistan Province, Iran. Paratype: A male specimen (HCHSU 8487), from Sistan & Baluchistan Province, collected on the road from Jask to Chabahar near Bent (in a direct path about 600 km South of the type locality). Etymology: Eryx sistanensis sp. nov. is named after the Sistan Region in Sistan & Baluchistan Province, where the holotype was collected. Diagnosis: Eryx sistanensis sp. nov. and E. johnii differ from other erycids by having the banding pattern on the tail, although this pattern is not always observed in the specimens of E. johnii (Boulenger 1893; Wall 1912; Smith 1943; Minton 1966; Leviton & Anderson 1970; Sorensen 1988; Das 1991; Sharma 2007). As Russell (1801) stated in the description of the type specimen of E. johnii: “the obtuse point of the tail resembles the head, and in point of thickness sometimes exceeds it.” In our specimens of the new species, the end of the tail is not as blunt as E. johnii and the thickness of the end of the tail is less than that of the head (Fig. 2). Despite the overlapping ranges in the pholidosis and morphometric characters of E. sistanensis sp. nov. and E. johnii, E. sistanensis sp. nov. differs from E. johnii by having fewer dorsal scale rows at midbody (43–56 versus 47–67). Description of holotype (Fig. 3): A juvenile, body length 220 mm, and tail length 30 mm. The ratio of interocular space width to distance between the posterior edge of the eye and the corner of the mouth 1.2. Head small, indistinct from the neck; eye small, on side of the head, bordered by 11 and 10 small scales on each side; six large scales between the eyes. Two elongated postinternasal scales; the first four rows of the scales immediately after the rostral arranged in a symmetric pattern. Three scales between the eye and nasal. Eleven supralabial scales; the second supralabial scale higher than the third. Dorsal surface of the ...