A preliminary study on reptile fauna of eastern Lorestan Province

Due to the importance of reptiles in life networks and terrestrial ecosystems we planned to investigate about reptilian fauna of eastern Lorestan. To perform this task, several field trips were conduvted to the study area including Dorood, Azna and Aligodarz towns and during these trips the reptile specimens were captured by various tools. Afterwards, in the laboratory the specimens were fixed and identified according to their biometric and morphological characters. In general, in this research 14 species belonging to different groups of reptiles were collected and identified. These species were as follows; from suborder of Sauria we collected five species including Trapelus lessonae, Ophisops elegans, Lacerta media, Cyrtopodion scabrum and Laudakia nupta, from suborder of Ophidia we identified seven species including: Natrix tessellata, Malpolon monspessulanus, Telescopus tessellates, Typhlops vermicularis, Coronella austriaca, Eirenis collaris and Dolichophis jugularis, and from order Chelonia we collected two species of Mauremys caspica and Testudo graeca. Regarding the fact that the study area is mountainous and out of reach, we highly expect that there are also other species which were not identified in this survey.