A note on the demographic morphological variation in Schokari Sand Racer, Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775) from Iran

Psammophis schokari (FORSSKAL, 1775), as one of the euryoecious semi-venomous snakes of the Psammophiidae family, has a wide distribution range and many local populations in the Iranian plateau. This study aimed to evaluate the demographic and morphological diversity of P. schokari in Iran. We measured twenty-one metric, meristic and relative characters of 22 specimens (11 ♀ and 11 ♂) to analyze sexual size dimorphism and compare demographic morphological variation between three different populations in Iran. Except for a significant difference in trunk length, no sexual dimorphism was recorded in our analysis. We observed a significant difference in morphological characters among different populations. Because P. schokari is often distributed at low altitudes and tropical and desert areas; We believe the main cause for the separation of populations is the heights on the Iranian plateau, which acts as a natural barriers for gene flow between populations therefore. These populations are isolated due to the separation effect of the orogenic process.