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Blanus aporus WERNER, 1898

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Higher TaxaBlanidae, Amphisbaenia, Lacertoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymBlanus aporus WERNER 1898: 220
Blanus aporus — BIRD 1939
Blanus strauchi aporus — ALEXANDER 1966
Blanus strauchi aporus — HRAOUI-BLOQUET et al. 2002
Blanus aporus — SINDACO et al. 2014 
DistributionSyria, Turkey (W Anatolia, Antalya eastwards)

Type locality: “bei Mersina” (= near Mersin, now Içel).  
Reproductionoviparous (manual and phylogenetic imputation, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesLectotype: NMW 12310 (designated by SINDACO et al. 2014); paralectotypes: BMNH 1946.8.2.15-16; MZUT 2119. Other syntypes: BMNH 1946.8.2.14, 1946.8.2.30, 1946.8.31.84-93 (according to Alexander 1966 the series currently consists of only specimens 85-93, but ZIL 6679 (now ZISP), coming from the British Museum in 1885, may represent the missing specimen). Also given as MSNTO R2119. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Snout projecting beyond lower jaw; no dropout of a dorsal half-annulus in nuchal region; 98-116 body annuli along ventral line; 15-20 caudal annuli; autotomy level usually indicated by narrowing of 4th or 5th postcloacal annulus; 14-20 dorsal, 16-23 ventral, 32-42 total segments per midbody annulus; 4-8 precloacal pores on a segment row usually disjunct midventrally; infralabials 3; contact between 2nd supralabial and prefrontal shields broad to narrow; contact between postmental and lateral shields of 1st postgenial row broad to absent; varying in coloration from cream to dark brown. (Alexander, 1966:221, Leviton et al. 1992) 
CommentSynonymy: Baran (1977) concluded that only two subspecies can be identified in Turkey, B. s. strauchi and B. s. aporus, considering B. s. bedriagae as a synonym of B. s. strauchi. Given the small differences it may be more appropriate to consider B. aporus and B. alexandri as subspecies of B. strauchi.

Taxonomy: B. aporus was regarded by recent authors as a subspecies of B. strauchi. On the basis of morphological evidences shown by Alexander (1966) and Zaloğlu (1968), the high genetic divergence and the lack of shared haplotypes for the nuclear marker from both B. strauchi and the eastern clade, this taxon is better regarded at the species rank. The geographic boundaries need to be investigated; the border between B. s. bedriagae and B. aporus probably lies between Antalya and Kaş, while the border between B. aporus and the easternmost taxon lies between Içel and Kozan (Sindaco et al. 2014).

Distribution: Not in Lebanon where it is replaced by B. alexandri (Jablonski & Sadek 2019).

Key: Alexander 1966 provided a key to the strauchi group (strauchi, bedriagae, aporus). 
EtymologyNamed after Greek a- (α-), prefix = not, without + porus,-ī, Latin or Greek póros (πορος) (both masculine) = passage, pore, opening. 
References
  • Al-Jumaily, M.M. 1983. A new record of the amphisbaenian Blanus bedraigai Boulenger in Iraq. Bulletin of the Biological Research Centre, Scientific Research Foundation, Baghdad 5: 83–84
  • Alexander, A. ALLAN 1966. Taxonomy and variation of Blanus strauchi (Amphisbaenia, Reptilia). Copeia 1966 (2): 205-224 - get paper here
  • Baier, F.; Sparrow, D.J. & Wiedl, H.J. 2009. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Cyprus. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt/M., ca. 370 pp.
  • Baran, I.; Kumlutas, Y.; Olgun, K.; Ilgaz, C. & Kaska, Y. 2001. The Herpetofauna of the Vicinity of Silifke. Turkish Journal of Zoology 25: 245-249 - get paper here
  • Bedriaga, J.v. 1884. Nachträgliche Bemerkung über Amphisbaena strauchi v. Bedr. Zool. Anz. 7: 346 - get paper here
  • Bedriaga, JAKOB VLADIMIROVIC 1884. Àmphisbaena cinerea Vand. und A. strauchi v. Bedr. Erster Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Doppelschleichen. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 50 (1): 23-77 - get paper here
  • Bird, C. G. 1936. The distribution of reptiles and amphibians in Asiatic Turkey with notes on a collection from the Vilayets of Adana, Gaziantep and Malatya. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (10) 18: 257-281. - get paper here
  • Bolet A, Delfino M, Fortuny J, Almécija S, Robles JM, et al. 2014. An Amphisbaenian Skull from the European Miocene and the Evolution of Mediterranean Worm Lizards. PLoS One 9 (6): e98082. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098082 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1884. Descriptions of new species of reptiles and batrachians in the British Museum. Part Il. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) 13: 396-398 - get paper here
  • BUDAK, Abidin; Cemal Varol TOK & Ahmet MERMER 1998. A Report on Reptiles Collected from Kumluca-Kalkan (Antalya), Turkey. Tr. J. of Zoology 22: 185-189
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  • Engelmann, W.E. et al. 1993. Lurche und Kriechtiere Europas. Neumann Verlag (Radebeul, Germany), 440 pp.
  • Gemel, R.; G. Gassner & S. Schweiger 2019. Katalog der Typen der Herpetologischen Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien – 2018. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, B 121: 33–248
  • Göçmen, Bayram; Ahmad M. Disi and Mehmet Zülfü Yıldız 2008. On the occurrence of Blanus strauchi aporus Werner, 1898 and Chalcides guentheri Boulenger, 1887 (Reptilia) in the Mediterranean ecozone of Syria. Zoology in the Middle East 43: 69-74 - get paper here
  • Hraoui-Bloquet, S.; Sadek, R.A.; Sindaco, R. & Venchi, A. 2002. The herpetofauna of Lebanon: new data on distribution. Zoology in the Middle East 27: 35-46 - get paper here
  • Kasparek, M. 1990. Zur Herpetofauna des Beckens von Köycegiz, Türkei (Dalyan-Region). Salamandra 26 (2-3): 155-164 - get paper here
  • Kumlutas, Yusuf; Oz, Mehmet; Durmus, Hakan; Tunc, M. Rizvan; Ozdemir, Adem; Dusen, Serdar 2004. On some lizard species of the Western Taurus Range. Turkish Journal of Zoology 28:225-236 - get paper here
  • Kwet, A. 2010. Reptilien und Amphibien Europas. Kosmos-Verlag, Stuttgart, 252 pp.
  • LANGNER, C. 2019. Die Gattung Blanus - Doppelschleichen in Europa und rund ums Mittelmeer Elaphe 2019 (6): 22-27
  • Leviton,A.E.; Anderson,S.C.; Adler, K.; Minton,S.A. 1992. Handbook to Middle East Amphibians and Reptiles. SSAR, Oxford, Ohio (Contr. to Herpetol. No. 8), 1-252
  • ÖZDEMÜR, Adem & Übrahim BARAN 2002. Research on the Herpetofauna of Murat Mountain (Kütahya-Usak). Turkish Journal of Zoology 26: 189-195 - get paper here
  • PAIVA, C., WINDEN, J. V. D., BOGAERTS, S., & COSTA, H. 2023. A review of chromatic anomalies in Blanus (Amphisbaenia: Blanidae) through citizen science records. Turkish Journal of Zoology, 47(5), 315-318
  • Şahin, M.K., Candan, K., Yildirim Caynak, E. et al. 2020. Ecological niche divergence contributes species differentiation in worm lizards (Blanus sp.) (Squamata: Amphisbaenia: Blanidae) in Mediterranean part of Anatolian peninsula and the Levantine region. Biologia (2020) - get paper here
  • Schlüter, U. 2010. Der Herpetofauna von Symi [Griechenland]. Elaphe 18 (4): 62-67
  • Sindaco, R. & Jeremcenko, V.K. 2008. The reptiles of the Western Palearctic. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina (Italy), 579 pp. - get paper here
  • Sindaco, Roberto; Alberto Venchi, Giuseppe M. Carpaneto, Marco A. Bologna 2000. The Reptiles of Anatolia: a Checklist and Zoogeographical analysis. Biogeographia, 21-2000: 441-554. - get paper here
  • SINDACO, ROBERTO; PANAGIOTIS KORNILIOS, ROBERTO SACCHI & PETROS LYMBERAKIS 2014. Taxonomic reassessment of Blanus strauchi (Bedriaga, 1884) (Squamata: Amphisbaenia: Blanidae), with the description of a new species from south-east Anatolia (Turkey). Zootaxa 3795 (3): 311–326 - get paper here
  • TOK, C. V. & TOSUNOǦLU, M. & AYAZ, D. & ÇIÇEK, K. & MUTLU, H. S. 2011. New records of the Anatolian Worm Lizard, Blanus strauchi (BEDRIAGA, 1884), from Turkey. Herpetozoa 24: - get paper here
  • Tok, C.V. 1999. Resadiye (Datça) Yarımadası Kertenkeleleri Hakkında (Gekkonidae, Agamidae, Chamaeleonidae, Lacertidae, Scincidae, Amphisbaenidae). Tr. J. Zool. 23 (1): 157–175
  • Vaconcelos, Raquel; Carretero, Miguel A.; Harris, D. James 2006. Phylogeography of the genus Blanus (worm lizards) in Iberia and Morocco based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers – preliminary analysis. Amphibia-Reptilia 27 (3): 339-346 - get paper here
  • Werner, FRANZ 1898. Über einige neue Reptilien und einen neuen Frosch aus dem cilicischen Taurus. Zool. Anz. 21 (555): 217-223. - get paper here
  • Yildiz, M.Z., Akman, B., Göçmen, B. & Yalçinkaya, D. 2009. New locality records for the Turkish worm lizard, Blanus strauchi aporus (Werner, 1898) (Sauria: Amphisbaenidae) in Southeast Anatolia, Turkey. North-Western Journal of Zoology 5 (2): 379-385 - get paper here
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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