Platyceps najadum

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Subordo: Serpentes
Infraordo: Caenophidia
Superfamilia: Colubroidea

Familia: Colubridae
Subfamilia: Colubrinae
Genus: Platyceps
Species: Platyceps najadum
Subspecies: P. n. albitemporalis – P. n. atayevi – P. n. dahlii – P. n. kalymnensis – P. n. najadum – P. n. schmidtleri
Name

Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831)

Type locality: Baku, Azerbaijan.
Synonyms

Tyria najadum Eichwald, 1831: 174
Coluber najadum Schmidt, 1939
Coluber najadum — Szczerbak, 2003
Platyceps najadum — Schätti & Monsch, 2004

References

Eichwald, E. 1831: Zoologia specialis, quam expositis animalibus tum vivis, tum fossilibus potissimuni rossiae in universum, et poloniae in specie, in usum lectionum publicarum in Universitate Caesarea Vilnensi. Zawadski, Vilnae.
Szczerbak, N.N. 2003: Guide to the Reptiles of the Western Palearctic. Krieger, Malabar, FL, 260 pp.
Schätti B. & Monsch, P. 2004: Systematics and phylogenetic relationships of Whip snakes (Hierophis Fitzinger) and Zamenis andreana Werner 1917 (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubrinae). Rev. Suisse Zool. 111 (2): 239–256.
Platyceps najadum at the New Reptile Database. Accessed on 30 oct 2008.

Vernacular names
English: Dahls Wipe Snake

Platyceps najadum, known commonly as Dahl's whip snake, the slender whip snake, and the Zagros whip snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae.

Taxonomy

Platyceps najadum was first described by Karl Eichwald in 1831,[1] as Tyria najadum.[2]
Geographic range

Platyceps najadum is found in the Balkans, Aegean, Cyprus, the Mid-East, and as far as Turkmenistan and the Caucasus Mountains.[3]
Habitat

P. najadum occurs in dry and xeric environments in a wide range of habitats: in desert and rocky land, in forests, woodland scrub, and agricultural land from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) altitude. It is commonly found in fields, and seen crushed on roads.
Description

P. najadum has a slim body, and is rarely over a metre (39 inches) in total length (including tail).[4]
Conservation status

P. najadum is threatened by direct persecution, forest fires and intensive agriculture, where its range interacts with human interests.[1]
Reproduction

P. najadum is an egg laying species. Females lay between 3 and 16 eggs in a clutch.[1]
Subspecies

Four[2] subspecies are identified.

Platyceps najadum albitemporalis (Darevsky & Orlov, 1994)
Platyceps najadum dahlii (Fitzinger, 1826) – Balkans, Cyprus, Aegean Turkey
Platyceps najadum kalymnensis (B. Schneider, 1979) – endemic to Kalymnos island, the Aegean
Platyceps najadum najadum (Eichwald, 1831) – Caucasus and Asia Minor

Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Platyceps.
Etymology

Both the subspecific name, dahlii, and the common name, Dahl's whip snake, are in honor of Austrian entomologist Georg Dahl (1769 – 1831) who collected the type specimen in Dalmatia in 1824.[5]

The subspecific name, schmidtleri, is in honor of German herpetologist Josef Friedrich Schmidtler (born 1942).[6]
Indigenous names

Σαϊτα (Greek), Saita, Стрелушка (Bulgarian), šilac (Croatian), Za'aman Z'eitani (Hebrew), Ok Yılanı (Turkish).
References

Petros Lymberakis, Rastko Ajtic, Varol Tok, Ismail H. Ugurtas, Murat Sevinç, Pierre-André Crochet, Ahmad Mohammed Mousa Disi, Souad Hraoui-Bloquet, Riyad Sadek, Idriz Haxhiu, Wolfgang Böhme, Aram Agasyan, Boris Tuniyev, Natalia Ananjeva, Nikolai Orlov (2009). "Platyceps najadum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2009: e.T157277A5068046. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009.RLTS.T157277A5068046.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
"Platyceps najadum ". The Reptile Database. http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/ ". French language Wikipédia.
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-26. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich … volume 3. pages 129-130. 1858.

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Platyceps najadum dahlii, p. 64; P. n. schmidtleri, p. 236).