The distribution of cave-dwelling lizards of the families Gekkonidae and Phyllodactylidae (Sauria) was investigated in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Obtained information includes new distribution records of species from 15 caves. The caves are Bendireh, Taigeh, Ban, Zarrinabad, Ghadah, Kulkani, and Darhamreh in Ilam Province, Pelazh, Gavbar and Asmari in Khuzestan Province, Tadovan, Manian and Sangeshkan in Fars Province and Dalaki and Khesht in Bushehr Province. In this study, five species belonging to the Gekkonidae and Phyllodactylidae families were recorded including: Asaccus elisae, Asaccus nasrullahi, Hemidactylus persicus, Cyrtopodion scabrum, and Cyrtopodion gastrophole.

Cave-dwelling lizards, Gekkonidae and Phyllodactylidae, Zagros Mountains, Western Iran

In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in information available on the fauna of caves (Chapman 1983, Culver and Sket 2000, Bauer et al. 2002, Ngo et al. 2008, Afrasiab 2011). There is only one record for cave dwelling lizards, Asaccus kermanshahensis Rastegar-Pouyani, 1996, in Iran which, so far, has not been reported from other habitats, although the diversity of caves fauna in Iran is not well known (Esmaeili-Rineh and Sari 2013). The northern and western borders of the country are bounded by two large mountain ranges, the Elburz and Zagros, respectively. These two mountain ranges have played an important role in shaping the past and present distribution patterns of various Agamid, Scincid and Gekkonid taxa (Macey et al. 2000, Torki et al. 2010, Afrasiab et al. 2013). The Zagros Mountains include a series of parallel ridges interspersed with plains that bisect the country from northwest to southeast. The Zagros Mountains represent 55% of all karstic-carbonate formations in Iran, and more than 250 caves, most dry, are known from this region (Raeisi 2004). A number of species of animals live permanently or temporarily in these caves, including bats, blind crustacean, blind fishes and arthropods in deeper part or lizards, snakes, and birds near the entrance (Akmali et al. 2011, Esmaeili-Rineh and Sari 2013, Sharifi et al. 2014).

Although there are no obligate cave-dwelling (i.e., troglobionts) reptiles, caves are used on a temporary to long-term basis by several snakes and lizards around the globe (Afrasiab 2011). Some colubrid snakes hunt bats at cave entrances or enter caves to hunt roosting bats (Akmali et al. 2011, Sharifi et al. 2014). Among lizards, geckos are considered the most common cave-dwelling lizards (Culver 2000, Bauer et al. 2002). There are nearly 50 described species of lizards belonging to 10 families that occur in the Zagros Mountains (Anderson 1999). Gekkonidae is the largest family of geckos consisting of over 950 described species belonging to 51 genera (Uetz and Hošek 2015). Gekkonids along with Lacertid lizards are among the most diverse family of lizards in the Zagros Mountains (Anderson 1999).

In this study, we describe the lizard fauna of caves in the Zagros Mountains. The purpose of this study is to identify cave dwelling lizard’s species as important elements of life in caves of central and southern parts of the Zagros Mountains.

We surveyed 15 caves for lizards in the southern, southwestern and western parts of Iran in Bushehr, Fars, Ilam and Khuzestan provinces, which is the primary region with caves and karst development in the Zagros Mountains (Figures 1 and 2; Table 1). Sampling of lizards was done by using long pans and special bags, and the latitude and longitude of caves were recorded using a Garmin GPS unit (GPSMAP 60CSx; Garmin International, New York, USA). Captured lizards were photographed and identified in the field.

Figure 1. 

Location of the visited caves in the Zagros Mountains. (Numbers show caves: 1 Asmari 2 Bendirh 3 Dalaki 4 Darhamreh 5 Gavbar 6 Ghadah 7 Ban 8 Khesht 9 Kulkani 10 Manian 11 Pelazh 12 Sangeshkan 13 Tadovan 14 Taigeh 15 Zarinabad).

Figure 2. 

Some of the caves visited in the studied area. For more details and coordinations refer to Table 1. Dalaki (A), Taigeh (B), Tadovan (C), Manian (D), Zarrinabad (E) and Gavbar (F).

Five species of Gekkonid lizards belonging to Asaccus, Hemidactylus and Cyrtopodion genera were collected from the 15 caves throughout the Zagros Mountains in western and southwestern Iran (Table 1 and Figure 3A–F) as follow.

Figure 3. 

The collected species in this study in the caves located in Table 1. Cyrtopodion scabrum (A), Cyrtopodion gastrophole (B), Asaccus elisae (C, D), Asaccus nasrullahi (E), Hemidactylus persicus (F).

We visited 15 caves and recorded five species of Gekkonid lizards, Asaccus elisae, Asaccus nasrullahi, Hemidactylus persicus, Cyrtopodion scabrum, and Cyrtopodion gastrophole. Of the above-mentioned recorded species, only Asaccus elisae was previously reported by Anderson (1999) from caves and non-caves habitats. Anderson (1999) found it in a cave in Fars Province and in Lorestan Province under a large flake of exfoliated sandstone on a cliff face above a stream. This species is sympatric with Cyrtopodion scabrum, Hemidactylus persicus, and H. flaviviridis in western and southwestern regions of Iran (Parsa et al. 2009).

Geckos are chiefly surface active animals but there are great varieties of Gekkonid lizards adapted to live in darkness situations (such as caves) with some pre-adaptations for occupying cave environments and deep rock grooves such as long snout, reduced keeled tubercles, absence of caudal tubercles, all for crawling in rock cracks inside the caves, adhesive paddles, and slender limbs for climbing (Bauer et al. 2002). Cyrtopodion scabrum is mostly known as a house gecko and there is no record of this species in other habitats as was sustained by Anderson (1999). We observed this species in two caves, hence extended the knowledge of habitat characteristics of this species. Although many of collected and identified lizard species used to caves as resting areas during the day and were observed around the caves in the rocky habitats, none of them is a true cave-dwelling species in Iran.

We thank the staff of Cultural Heritage and Tourism and Department of Environment for providing information about caves. We kindly thank Hiva Faizi who carefully read this manuscript and provided useful modifications in early version of the manuscript. We thank the anonymous reviewer and the editor for corrections and comments on the previous version of the manuscript.