Mozaffari Omid, Ahmadzadeh Faraham, Saberi-Pirooz Reihaneh
Aria Herpetological Institute, No. 1, Parastoo 4 St., Shahrak-e-Homa, Ashrafi-e-Esfehani Highway, Tehran, Iran.
Zootaxa. 2020 May 5;4768(4):zootaxa.4768.4.7. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4768.4.7.
We describe a new species of Lacertid lizard of the genus Eremias from the border of the northeastern side of Markazi Province to the western side of Tehran Province in Iran. Eremias fahimii sp. nov. is part of the Eremias subgenus (or morphotype) by virtue of lacking lateral fringes on the fourth toe, having movable eyelids, a lower nasal shield that rests on two supralabials, and ventral plates arranged in oblique longitudinal rows. It can be further differentiated from previously described species assigned to this morphotype by the absence of distinctly keeled upper caudal scales, gular scales that do not extend to the second inframaxiallary scales, shape and relative size of frontoparietals, parietal and parietals, scale counts and absence of lateral color ocellus. In addition, the molecular phylogeny of the most common Iranian racerunners including Eremias fahimii sp. nov. was studied using mitochondrial Cytochrome b (Cyt b) and 12S ribosomal RNA (12S) genes. Our results support the validation of the new species which depicts a sister group relationship to E. persica. Of the 20 species of Eremias known from Iran, E. fahimii sp. nov. is the seventh endemic species along with E. andersoni, E. isfahanica, E. lalezharica, E. kavirensis, E. montana and E. papenfussi. Despite the fact that up to now E. fahimii sp. nov. is only known from the type locality, it is highly probable that it also occurs in Tehran, Alborz, Qom, Qazvin and Zanjan Provinces due to topological characteristics and habitat similarities in these areas.
我们描述了一种来自伊朗马尔卡齐省东北边界至德黑兰省西侧的沙蜥属（Eremias）蜥蜴新物种。法希米沙蜥（Eremias fahimii sp. nov.）属于沙蜥亚属（或形态型），其特征为第四趾无外侧缘缨，具有可活动的眼睑，下鼻鳞位于两枚上唇鳞之上，腹鳞呈斜向纵行排列。它可进一步与此前归入该形态型的已描述物种相区分，区别在于没有明显具棱的尾上鳞，喉部鳞片不延伸至第二枚下颌下鳞，额顶鳞、顶鳞及顶间鳞的形状和相对大小，鳞片数量以及没有外侧色眼斑。此外，我们利用线粒体细胞色素b（Cyt b）和12S核糖体RNA（12S）基因研究了包括法希米沙蜥在内的伊朗最常见的疾行蜥的分子系统发育。我们的结果支持了该新物种的有效性，它与波斯沙蜥（E. persica）构成姐妹群关系。在伊朗已知的20种沙蜥中，法希米沙蜥是第七个特有物种，与安德森沙蜥（E. andersoni）、伊斯法罕沙蜥（E. isfahanica）、拉勒扎里沙蜥（E. lalezharica）、卡维尔沙蜥（E. kavirensis）、蒙塔纳沙蜥（E. montana）和帕彭富斯沙蜥（E. papenfussi）一样。尽管到目前为止法希米沙蜥仅在模式产地被发现，但由于这些地区的地形特征和栖息地相似性，它很可能也分布于德黑兰、阿尔伯兹、库姆、加兹温和赞詹省。
