Study of Snake Fauna of Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province

Kangavar County is located in the eastern regions of Kermanshah Province. Since the herpetofauna of Kangavar County is rich, and no biosystematics studies have already been done in this region, the aim of the present study is to investigate the faunistic of snakes in this area. The study area is located in the western margin of the Iranian Plateau between 34°30' N and 47°58' E. All specimens were collected from different regions of Kangavar County during the survey from 2014 to 2015 by a snake Tongs stick grabber 120 cm, and sometimes, by Hook stick. Specimens were identified according to Latifi (2000) and Leviton et al. (1992). The collected specimens represented seven species, six genera and four families including the family Colubridae: Collared Dwarf Racer Eirenis collaris, Dotted Dwarf Racer, Eirenis punctatolineatus; Dice snake, Natrix tessellata; Zebra Snake, Spalerosophis microlepis; the family Typhlopidae:Greek Blind snake, Typhlops vermicularis;thefamily Lamprophiidae: Eastern Montpellier Snake, Malpolon insignitus; and the familyViperidae:Levantine Viper, Macrovipera lebetina. Among the identified species, Malpolon insignitus is semi-venomous and Macrovipera lebetina is venomous. The current study recorded seven species belonging to six genera and four families (Colubridae, Viperidae, Typhlopidae and Lamprophiidae) in Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province. The Colubridae with four species showed the highest diversity among the families represented.