Eremias montana Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani, 2001

Eskandarzadeh, Naeimeh, Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar, Fathinia, Behzad, Bahmani, Zahed, Hamidi, Kordiyeh & Gholamifard, Ali, 2018, Annotated checklist of the endemic Tetrapoda species of Iran, Zoosystema 40 (24), pp. 507-537 : 519

Eremias montana Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani, 2001

Eremias montana Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani, 2001: 108 .

COMMON NAME. — Mountain Racerunner.

HOLOTYPE. — Field number P198.

TYPE LOCALITY. — Upland regions of the Zagros Mountains , 60 km North East of city of Kermanshah (34°52’N, 47°5’E), Kermanshah Province .

DISTRIBUTION. — In addition to the localities of the holotype and paratypes, E. montana has been found in South regions of Hamedan Province, about 21 km South West of Hamedan city (c. 34°33’N, 48°25’E) at 2800 m a.s.l. and in the highlands of Badr and Parishan (2466 m a.s.l.) in South of Qorveh, Kurdistan Province, Western Iran (35°04’N, 47°47’E) (Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani 2005; Bahmani et al. 2011) .

HABITAT. — This species is associated with upland and mountainous steppes, with luxurious vegetation. The animals forage among shrubs and hide in holes when disturbed. In the Alvand Mountains, this species has been recorded from stony hills and mountainous steppes. Vegetation at the type locality is mainly Astragalus , Euphorbia, Gondelium as well as other species of the families Graminaceae and Compositeae. The area is snowcovered during the winter, with a relatively short mild summer period. Animals may be found foraging among the shrubs, and take refuge in these shrubs when alarmed (Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani 2005).

IUCN. — Least concern.

REFERENCES. — Rastegar-Pouyani & Rastegar-Pouyani (2001, 2005); Bahmani et al. (2011).