PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOURTH SERIES Festschrift for George Sprague Myers Vol. XXXVIII, No. 10, pp. 163-206. December 31, 1970 THE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF AFGHANISTAN, A CHECKLIST AND KEY TO THE HERPETOFAUNA By Alan E. Leviton and Steven C. Anderson California Academy of Sciences, Scui Francisco 94118 In 1950 the Academy received a collection of reptiles from Afghanistan. Though small, the collection was of considerable interest, having come from a little-visited region of the Dasht-i-Margo desert. It was reported on by Le\aton in 1959. Subsequently, significant collections of Afghanistan reptiles have been made, notably by John Gasperetti in 1961 (Leviton and Anderson, 1961a and 1963), Richard and Erica Clark in 1964 and 1968 (Clark, Clark, Anderson and Leviton, 1969, and Clark and Clark, in preparation [for 1968 collections]), and the William Street Expedition of the Field Museum of Natural History in 1965 (Anderson and Leviton, 1969). These, together with new materials acquired by other museums, some of which we have seen, have formed the basis of the follow-ing preliminary attempt at a checklist and key to the herpetofauna of the entire country. The growth of knowledge about the Afghan herpetofauna may be measured by the fact that in 1959 Leviton included 67 nominal species in his checklist. One additional species, Calotes versicolor, an error of omission at that time, should have been included to bring the total to 68. In the accompanying key and checklist, 101 nominal species and subspecies are listed, an increase of 50 [163]
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