One week in Western Greece

[miguel santos]

I went for one week ( 13th till 19th October ) with my wife and 2 kids to Greece. Although we almost never search at night or very early in the morning we always end up seeing a lot of animals.
Here is a small selection of what we saw:

PS all comments are welcome

[Mario Schweiger]

Seems you had some nice and successful days
Love the Pelican shot!

Mario

[Peter Oefinger]

Very nice. Must have been great visiting all these beutiful places.

[Guillaume Gomard]

Dahl's Whip Snake is a great encounter, thanks for sharing!

[GertJan Verspui]

Nice vacation time!! Thanks!

[miguel santos]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your replyies, it was indeed a nice holiday.
As for the scorpion, I think it is a Euscorpius mingrelicus. But I'm not an expert.

A small question: is the slow worm a different species from central europe or is it the same? I can not find much on the net about the A. Graeca.

Miguel

[Mario Schweiger]

A small question: is the slow worm a different species from central europe or is it the same? I can not find much on the net about the A. Graeca.

Miguel

Yes, it is
See:

Code: Select all

Gvozdík, V., D. Jandzik, P. Lymberakis, D. Jablonski & J. Moravec (2010): Slow worm, Anguis fragilis (Reptilia: Anguidae) as a species complex: Genetic structure reveals deep divergences.- Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 55: 460–472.

Summary:
Phylogenetic relationships of the Western Palearctic legless lizard genus Anguis were inferred based on a fragment of mitochondrial DNA and two nuclear protein-coding loci, C-mos and PRLR. A. cephallonica from the Peloponnese was confirmed as a valid species. It is the sister taxon to a clade comprising all other evolutionary lineages, which were shown to represent three distinct species: (1) A. fragilis sensu stricto occurring in Western and Central Europe, the north-western Balkans, with possibly isolated populations in the eastern Balkans, and presumably also in western Scandinavia and Italy; (2) A. colchica distributed from the eastern Czech Republic and the Baltic region eastward to northern Iran, presumably also in eastern
Scandinavia, and the north-eastern Balkans; (3) A. graeca restricted to the southern Balkans, and partially sympatric with A. cephallonica. According to the more variable mitochondrial marker, A. graeca appears to be the sister species to A. colchica, and these taxa together form a sister clade to A. fragilis, whereas the less variable nuclear markers show A. colchica to be closer to A. fragilis. The C-mos gene has not provided substantial variation within this species complex, while the PRLR gene, which was used for the first time in phylogeographic study in a reptile, distinguished all species successfully. Intra-specific differentiation of A. colchica is discussed, and subspecific status of the Caucasian and Caspian populations is proposed. The uncovered genetic differences should be taken into account in all future biogeographical, morphological and ecological studies, as well as in conservation.

See PDF-1963 in DB

Mario

[miguel santos]

Thanks Mario for your reply and reference.
It is a great data base that you have.

Miguel