Pseudopus Merrem, 1820

Pseudopus apodus (Pallas, 1775)

TYPE. Not located (Anderson 1999).

TYPE LOCALITY. Naryn Steppe on the north coast of the Caspian Sea, Russia . This locality seemed unlikely to Obst (1978), who made a correction to the region of the Terek River, Russia .

DISTRIBUTION. The Balkans, Turkey, Levant south to Israel and Jordan, Iraq, Transcaucasia, N and W Iran, Turkmenistan, N Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, S Kazakhstan; an isolated range on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

DISTRIBUTION IN IRAN. Fig. 25. From NW Iran by the Turkish borders through the Caspian region to the Kopet Dagh; a single record from the central Zagros.

HABITAT. Open grassy habitats, near streams and in the Hyrcanian forests (Anderson 1999; Ahmadzadeh et al. 2008). The latter authors observed P. apodus in a pond during a sunny day.

REMARKS. A very outlying record (FMNH 69297) by Schmidt (1955) from Istgah-e Bisheh [Bisheh-Porem] (Lorestan Prov.) situated about 390 km from the closest Caspian localities together with records from adjacent Iraq (Reed & Marx 1959) indicates a more continuous distribution of P. apodus in the western Zagros area.

REFERENCES. Obst (1978); Anderson (1999); Ahmadzadeh et al. (2008).