The lizards fauna of Alborz Province: distribution and conservation

Alborz province with area about 5833 km2 located in west of Tehran province. In a long term study of the lizards in this province which lasted 2 years (2015-2016), 13 species of lizards, Paralaudakia caucasia, Trapelus agilis, Phrynocephalus persicus, Darevskia defilippi, Lacerta strigata, Eremias persica, Eremias fasciata, Eremias papenfussi, Ophisops elegans, Mesalina watsonana, Bunopus crassicaudus, Ablepharus bivittatus and Eumeces schneideri, belonging to four families, were collected, recognized and reported from the area. We also built 13 distribution maps for lizards of the Alborz province. We recorded two new distribution records for lizards of Iran in the area, we found an isolated population of Lacerta strigata in the north of the province which extends altitudinal distribution of the species more than 900 m in Iran. We also found an isolated population of Eremias faciata in south of the province, this record is the westernmost record for this species in Iran and extends the known distributional range of the species about 200 km westward.