Статьи

We used the route method to carry out quantitative counts of reptiles in nine regions of Southeastern Kazakhstan. The results yielded data on the population density of reptiles in fourteen habitats. We observed the greatest diversity of species and the largest number of reptiles in sandy deserts. Both measures were much smaller in loamy plains and low mountains. In desert habitats, the Central Asian tortoise Agrionemys horsfieldii and the rapid racerunner Eremias velox were more common than other species.

We studied the colonization of the Amur Rat Snake Elaphe schrenckii and the Steppes Rat Snake E. dione of a sawdust mountain, located among the wastes a timber processing complex, during high floods of the Amur River. Since 2013, both species of snakes live in this territory year-round. For snakes, shelters from the cold are shelters in the form of “floa-ting” cracks (depth 1–1.5 m, temperature in winter up to +18°C) with a snow “roof”. Species E. schrenckii dominates in numbers on group wintering.

A number of aspects of the hibernation of the viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara) in the Asian part of its range are analyzed. The results of our own field work for the period from 1971 to 2022 in the Altai Republic (Altai Nature Reserve, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions are used). Within 17 localities of the foothill and flat parts of the south of Western Siberia (51°22΄ – 57°04΄ N, 57°33΄ – 88°08΄ E), 54 wintering sites were recorded. 173 li-zards of different sexes and ages were noted in the wintering shelters.

Phrynocephalus helioscopus species complex have been thoroughly studied during recent years, but several lineages remained unassigned. Based on the morphological differences and divergence in COI (mtDNA) gene sequences, two new subspecies are described in the present article within the Phrynocephalus helioscopus species complex: Ph. helioscopus karatauensis ssp. nov. from the environs of Karatau Ridge in Kazakhstan and Ph. saidalievi orlovae ssp. nov.

We provide an integrative taxonomic revision of miniaturized sphenomorphine skinks from Vietnam and Cambodia based on morphological analysis and COI DNA barcoding. Our data reveal a new species, Sphenomorphus valentinae sp. nov., from Chu Yang Sin National Park, Dak Lak Province, Vietnam.