Atlas

Bauer, Aaron M., DeBoer, Jonathan C. & Taylor, Dylan J., 2017, Atlas of the Reptiles of Libya, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 64 (8), pp. 155-318 : 169-171

ATLAS OF THE REPTILES OF LIBYA

ORGANIZATION OF ACCOUNTS.— Each species occurring in Libya is listed by family under the currently accepted scientific name with authority, date and page of description (plus figures or plates, if relevant). The full citation to the corresponding description is provided, as are those of any synonyms based on Libyan material (or to which Libyan material might refer if the taxonomic status of Libyan populations is unresolved), each with data about the corresponding type material, including the identity and whereabouts of the type or types and a verbatim statement of the published type locality. This is followed by abbreviated citations to the taxon in several standard references for the herpetology of the North Africa which include Libya. These are: Le Berre (1989) covering the Sahara broadly, Schleich et al. (1996) covering North Africa, Kramer and Schnurrenberger (1963) on the snakes of Libya, Sindaco and Jeremčenko (2008; lizards, crocodylians and chelonians) and Sindaco et al. (2013; snakes) covering the reptiles of the Western Palearctic, and Trape et al. (2012) treating the lizards, crocodiles, and turtles of West Africa and the Sahara. Schleich et al. (1996), in particular should be consulted for biological information and for vernacular names in Arabic and other languages. Specific distributional data, along with a gazetteer are provided in Kramer and Schnurrenberger (1963). Le Berre (1989)

and Schleich et al. (1996) give maps showing the approximate extent of each species’ distribution, whereas the remaining sources present occurrence data at the one degree square level.

A subsequent section on distribution provides a statement of the taxon’s global distribution and a summary of its occurrence in Libya, with relevant comments, if any. This is followed by a list of specific Libyan localities, these are organized by district (shabiyah), starting in

Tripolitania, then Fezzan, and finally Cyrenaica. When Libya was under Ottoman and later Italian rule it was, at times, governed as there separate provinces or

FIGURE 7. Map of Libya showing the 25 baladiyat (administrative districts) governorates, Tripolitania, Cyre- in use in Libya in 1988.

naica and Fezzan, roughly corresponding to regions recognized since antiquity. Although these regional subdivisions have, especially in modern times, not always been recognized official-

ly, they nonetheless have remained in common use, both within Libya and outside. In the post-colonial era several different schemes of subdivision have been in sequential use. A system of 25 administrative divisions

(baladiyat) was used beginning in 1988 (Fig. 7), but the country was reorganized into 13 districts

(shabiyat, singular shabiyah) in

1995. This number increased to

26 in 1998 and 32 in 2001, and most recently was reduced to 22

in 2007 (Fig. 8). Rather confus-

ingly some of the former baladiyat correspond exactly or FIGURE 8. Map of Libya showing the 22 shabiyat (districts) currently in use nearly so to shabiyat, but others in Libya. do not. We illustrate both the 1988 and 2007 systems to facilitate the interpretation of localities that might be confusing, but only the 2007 shabiyat are given in the list of localities.

Each locality is numbered and corresponds to an entry in the gazetteer provided in the APPENDIX which gives the current name of the locality as well as older names or variants recorded in published records or associated with museum specimens. Both museum specimens and published sources are given for each locality. Specimens and citations too imprecise to allow for mapping are listed at the end of each set of localities, with whatever details are known. A comments section includes discussion of taxonomic and distributional issues for the taxon in general and as they relate to Libya in particular. Finally, the IUCN threat category for each species is provided, based on the information available at www.iucnredlist.org/.

Chelonia Family Cheloniidae