Montenegro Lizards

[Paul Lambourne]

Hello, Just back from a very hot trip to Montenegro.. a good trip with around thirty five herp species seen , including the four species I needed to tick, as well as many orchids and dragonflies... Sean is doing a trip report shortly so I will just post a few pics here and there.

Huge thanks to Sean for organising the trip and keeping both birders and herpers happy..and thanks to all that contributed to the trip.

Montenegro is a fabulous country to herp, but very small and the habitat and sites are very sensitive to intrusion.. thus I will omit any location details..

Firstly my biggest want for the trip... Dinarolacerta montenegrina

Second on my tick list Archaeolacerta mosorensis

Next the stunning third member of my tick list, Archaeolacerta oxycephala.. darker main land form,

We were also lucky enough to hire a boat and visit an uninhabited island were the oxycephala were noticeably bigger and brighter and more skitish.. my poor pictures do not do them justice..

Anguis gracea

The very pretty lacerta agilis bosnica

And the slightly less bright female

Lastly a cute juvenile trilineata

Many more species were seen, but as temps were so high, the lizards were very skittish...

A whole post with no viper pics.. what do you think Peter

Paul

[Sean Cole]

Excellent pics Paul. If you had a better lens imagine what they would have looked like

Sean

[Bobby Bok]

Congratulations lad! My top three as well for coming August, hope to be as lucky as you!

[Peter Oefinger]

Nnrgggrmpf. Everyone has been to Montenegro but me - watching a boring England vs Sveden (or was it Ukraine?) soccer game...
Very nice!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Cool, Congrats on your ticks!!

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Supah!

Not that you really suggested anything else, but I would attribute both Dalmatolacerta individuals shown to the non-dark morph.

Compare with this guy...


And some island/islet populations can be equally dark as well => => =>
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ye ... SJOnCRdzEA

Arnold states that island populations and those from higher mainland locations tend to be darker. I'm not sure if that's really a comprehensive rule. Any thoughts by anyone? My darkie us from 497m absl. At 1093m absl in Lovcen, spotted indeed only (but not so many) dark ones.

Of course, I'm also going to be the pain in the ****** to point out that Archaeolacerta is a monospecific genus for the Tyrrhenian rock lizard (thus Dinamoso and Dalmoxyc).

Temporal scalation on that last one look more like viridis, although white vertebral line seems to be present (cf. earlier discussion on guentherpetersi).
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1211#p10577

[Sean Cole]

Supah!

Not that you really suggested anything else, but I would attribute both Dalmatolacerta individuals shown to the non-dark morph.

Compare with this guy...


And some island/islet populations can be equally dark as well => => =>
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ye ... SJOnCRdzEA

Arnold states that island populations and those from higher mainland locations tend to be darker. I'm not sure if that's really a comprehensive rule. Any thoughts by anyone? My darkie us from 497m absl. At 1093m absl in Lovcen, spotted indeed only (but not so many) dark ones.

Of course, I'm also going to be the pain in the ****** to point out that Archaeolacerta is a monospecific genus for the Tyrrhenian rock lizard (thus Dinamoso and Dalmoxyc).

Temporal scalation on that last one look more like viridis, although white vertebral line seems to be present (cf. earlier discussion on guentherpetersi).
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1211#p10577

Jeroen

The ones we saw at Skadar were on islands/islets, and weren't particularly dark.

The ones in Lovcen were much darker, however. and were at approx 1000m. Clearly too low for Rock partridge!!!

At a different place near to Njegusi, also at around 1000m, the oxycephala were dark too.

Sean

Sean

[Daniel Kane]

Some great shots of nice little lizards there Paul, well done. I like the L. agilis bosnica you found too; all bosnica I have seen (>30) have had a discontinuous vertebral line, unlike yours in the photos.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

@ Sean:

I think Arnold refers to islands in the sea. Also, 1000m absl would be something for dark ones (as they are not as montane as mosorensis, I guess), if you follow the theory.
Thanks in any case for the added info.

[Mario Schweiger]

Before the war, I often visited an area NE of Igalo (NW Montenegro), where all oxys have been complete black, like most on top of Lovcen mountain. Unfortunately this place is completely destroid now, no people in the small "village" and - surprisingly - no oxys on the house walls, altitude ~500 m asl..

Mario