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Eirenis persicus (ANDERSON, 1872)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Dark-headed Dwarf Racer
G: Persische Zwergnatter 
SynonymCyclophis persicus ANDERSON 1872: 392
Pseudocyclophis walteri BOETTGER 1888: 261 (fide SMITH 1943)
Pseudocyclophis persicus — BOETTGER 1888
Pseudocyclophis walteri — BOULENGER 1890
Contia persica — BOULENGER 1893
Contia angusticeps BOULENGER 1894: 262 (fide SMITH 1943)
Contia persica — WALL 1908: 801
Contia angusticeps — WALL 1908
Contia walteri — WALL 1911
Contia mcmahoni WALL 1911: 1037
Contia zebrina WALL 1923
Contia mcmahoni — SMITH 1943: 189
Contia persica — SMITH 1943: 188
Eirenis persicus — FORCART 1950
Eirenis persica — KHALAF 1959
Contia persica walteri — TERENT ÉV & CHERNOV 1965
Eirenis persicus walteri — MERTENS 1969: 61
Eirenis persicus — BARAN 1978: 264
Eirenis persica — ANANJEVA et al. 1988: 9699
Eirenis mcmahoni — DAS 1996: 56
Pseudocyclophis persicus — FRYNTA et al. 1997
Pseudocyclophiops [sic] persicus — DAS & CHATURVEDI 1998 (in error)
Pseudocyclophis persicus — KHAN 2004
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) persicus — NAGY et al. 2004
Eirenis persicus — VENCHI & SINDACO 2006
Pseudocyclophis persicus — GRUBER 2009: 127
Eirenis persicus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 259
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) walteri — RAJABIZADEH et al. 2015
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) angusticeps — RAJABIZADEH et al. 2015
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) mcmahoni — RAJABIZADEH et al. 2015
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) walteri — AKBARPOUR et al. 2020
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) angusticeps — AKBARPOUR et al. 2020
Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) mcmahoni — AKBARPOUR et al. 2020
Eirenis walteri — KAMALI 2020
Eirenis walteri — KHORMIZI et al. 2024 
DistributionS Turkmenistan, Iran, E Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, S Armenia

Type locality: Bushire, Iran, (28°55′13′′N, 50°50′09′′E)

angusticeps: NE Pakistan (lower ranges of Hindukush, Himalayan range); possibly E Afghanistan; Type locality: Cherat, Baluchistan (33°49′15′′N, 71°52′54′′E), North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan.

mcmahoni: Pakistan; Type locality: “Quetta, Lorlai, Mach, Spintangi” [Baluchistan, Pakistan]

persicus:

walteri: disjunct in S Turkmenistan, NE Iran, supposedly W Afghanistan; SE Iran, S/W Pakistan; Type locality: “Neu-Serachs an der Nordostspitze Persiens stück” [= Sarakhs city (36°32′15′′N, 61°10′26′′E), north-eastern Iran.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ZSI 4828, ZSI 16624 (RAJABIZADEH et al. 2015)
Holotype: Caucasian Museum Tiblissi [walteri]
Holotype: ZISP 10323 [nigrofasciatus]
Holotype: BNHM 768 [zebrina]
Holotype: ZSI (Zoological Survey of India), Calcutta, India; lost fide Smith (1943) [angusticeps] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (subgenus Pseudocyclophis): Nagy et al. 2003: 160


Additional details (1842 characters) are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentSubspecies: Eirenis persicus nigrofasciatus (NIKOLSKY 1907) has been considered as a valid species by recent authors.

Distribution: Does probably not occur in India (I. DAS, pers. comm.). Records for “persicus” from Northwest India mentioned by some authors (e.g. SMith 1943, chernov 1948) and recently uncritically adopted (e.g. Leviton et al. 1992; Sindaco et al. 2000) refer almost certainly to localities in former ‘British India’ and therefore to what is today Pakistan. E. mcmahoni is not in Pakistan fide KHAN 2002 (pers. comm.) or not recognized as species by KHAN. Not in Turkey fide A. Avci, pers. comm. 21 May 2020. For a map see Sindaco et al. 2013.

Synonymy: E. mcmahoni has been considered as a synonym of Cyclophis persicus ANDERSON 1872 (= Pseudocyclophis persicus = Eirenis persica), e.g. by MINTON 1966 and others since then. RAJABIZADEH et al. 2015 revalidated Eirenis (Pseudocyclophis) walteri, angusticeps, nigrofasciatus, and mcmahoni in addition to describing a new species, E. occidentalis. However, their analysis appears to be a bit preliminary. From their phylogenetic analysis it is not clear which sequence data they analyzed (”ten novel sequences” without explanation), and it is unclear why they mention 8,9, and 7 speciments analyzed for angusticeps, nigrofasciatus, and walteri, of which only 2 nigrofasciatus are shown in their phylogenetic trees (Figs. 8,9). Only some of their revalidated species have diagnoses (provided here), others don’t (including persicus). Finally, their analysis (and peer review) seemed to have suffered from lack of care (e.g. the word “square” was misspelled 8 times in the text). Hence, we do not adopt their taxonomic conclusions at this point.

Type species: Pseudocyclophis walteri Boettger, 1888 is the type species of the subgenus Pseudocyclophis Boettger, 1888. 
EtymologyNamed after its distribution in Persia (now: Iran). E. mcmahoni has been named after Sir Henry McMahon, the president of the Quetta Natural History Society, who sent the specimens to Wall. 
References
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  • Anderson, J. 1872. On some Persian, Himalayan, and other Reptiles. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1872: 371-404 - get paper here
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  • Baran,I. 1978. Some rare species of snakes from Turkey. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums, Wien 81 [1977]: 261-265 - get paper here
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  • Kamali, Kamran 2020. A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Iran. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (www.chimaira.de). 574 pp.
  • Khan, Muhamad Sharif 2004. Annotated checklist of Amphibians and Reptiles of Pakistan. Asiatic Herpetological Research 10: 191-201 - get paper here
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  • Smith, M.A. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma, Including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub-Region. Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 (Serpentes). Taylor and Francis, London. 583 pp.
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  • Zare Khormizi, M., Jafari Najafabadi, M., Tahouri, A., & Salemi, A. 2024. A new distribution record of Eirenis walteri (Boettger, 1888)(Ophidia: Colubridae), In Yazd province, Central Iran. Archives of Razi Institute - get paper here
 
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