Systematics and distribution of Trachylepis septemtaeniata (Reuss,1834) ) (Sauria: Sincidae) in central and southern of Iraq

Abstract

Iraq possesses varied climatic and geographical conditions includes eleven main terrestrial ecoregions, some of which can be classified as a key ecoregion that covers larger areas of the country that led to rich biodiversity and a considerable heterogeneity of the herpetofauna, little current information exists on globally important herpetofauna species of Iraq, in general and these are considered to be the least well known of the vertebrate groups, therefore an investigation on the occurrence of skinks in some provinces in central and southern Iraq was carried out from September 2013 to September 2015. Totally 46 adult specimens (15 male and 31 females) were collected from different localities in central and southern of Iraq. Statistical analysis were conducted on 19 metric and meristic characters were measured in Trachylepis septemtaeniata. The results of ANOVA test and Mann-Whitney U test showed that there are a significant differences (P<0.05) in four metric characters between males and females: SVL: 60.64±3.89 mm, 69±1.86 mm; HLL: 24.52±1.66 mm, 28.07±0.8 mm; FLL: 15.87±0.87 mm, 18. 43±0.58 mm and HL: 11.77±0.53 mm, 13.45±0.41 mm.