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In Georgia, 16 species of rock lizards of the Genus Darevskia are occuring (D. alpina, D. „armeniaca`, D. brauneri, D. caucasica, D. clarkorum, D. daghestanica, D. „dahli`, D. derjugini, D. mixta, D. nairensis, D. parvula, D. portschinskii, D. praticola, D. rudis, D. „unisexualis` and D. Valentini). Besides short presentations of the single species and hints on their distribution and habitats, also some systematic remarks are given.

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In the herpetological collection of ZFMK 528 scientific species group names are represented by type materi- al. Of these, 304 names are documented by primary type specimens (onomatophores) while for 224 further names sec- ondary type specimens (typoids) are available, ranging chronologically from 1801 to 2010. The list is a shortened pred- ecessor of a comprehensive type catalogue in progress. It lists name bearing types with their catalogue numbers includ- ing information on further type series members also in other institutions, while secondary types are listed only by pres- ence, both in ZFMK and other collections including holotype repositories. Geographic origin and currently valid names are also provided.

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Many regions of the former USSR still re- ceive little attention from Western visitors, herpetologists not excluded. For the Cau- casus Mountains this is all the more sur- prising since the area forms a zone where northern and Middle Eastern flora and fauna meet, and which is thus of considera- bly zoogeographical interest. Presently we find three larger states in the Caucasus: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Arme- nia. Turkey borders to the southwest, Iran to the southeast, and in the north it is the Russian federation. Various smaller parts claim independence. The Black Sea forms the natural western boundary, the Caspian Sea the eastern one. Herpetologically the Caucasus is historically well-known because of the work of Darev- sky and collaborators on the rock lizards (at the time still in the large genus Lacerta, now in Darevskia) and the discovery of the first case of parthenogenesis in vertebrates (DAREVSKY, 1967; DAREVSKII, 1978; DAREVSKY & KULIKOVA, 1961). Below we will concentrate on the results of our field trip to Georgia during the last two weeks of June 2003. Predictably, because of our common interest in the group, the lacertids will receive the most attention.

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To study the molecular genetic relationships and correlate them with the taxonomy within the complex of lacertid lizards of the genus Darevskia, the locus analysis of the copies of the SINE-type repeat (Squam1) specific for the order Squamata was used. It was demonstrated that one of the loci (No. 34) contained the Squam1 copy insert in all species and subspecies of the examined genus. SINE allelic copies in some of the loci contained large indels and specific sets of mutations. The allelic variant M (medium, about 340 bp) was found most frequently; it was detected in all subspecies of D. saxicola (saxicola, darevskii, szczerbaki, lindholmi) and in most of the other species of the genus. Two species, D. derjugini and D. praticola, differed from the other species in the presence of long (L) and short (S) alleles. The longest allele was characteristic of the D. derjugini population from the Northern Caucasus (L, 379 bp, ssp. silvatica), while the shortest allele (97 bp) united the derjugini and barani subspecies. The second allele S (279 bp) characterizes the subspecies D. praticola praticola, some individuals of which also carry allele M. The second subspecies, D. p. pontica, contains allele L2, which differs from all other medium alleles in the presence of strictly specific short indel. In addition to apomorphic indels, the specificity and mutation distribution patterns among the Squam1 alleles were also examined. An analysis of the NJ tree indicated the concordance between morphological and molecular genetic characters of the species derjugini, praticola, and saxicola. Furthermore, four subspecies of D. saxicola were much closer to each other than the subspecies within the first two species; D. d. silvatica and the group of D. d. derjugini + barani were clearly separated. It cannot be excluded that populations from Azerbaijan and Serbia can be treated as the independent subspecies of D. praticola.

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Investigated the albumins from 31 species and subspecies of the genus Lacerta s.1. by means of the immunoloical techniue Micro-Complement-fixation. Dendrograms were computed by means of the ktch-MargJiash algorithm. Moreover the taxa of the Lacerta saxicola and the Lacerta danfordi comlexes were analyzed by electrophoresis concerning 14 genetic loci. The results were discussel together with karyological and genitalmorphological data so far known yielding the following relationships: Lacerta graeca shows a closer relationshi to the subgenus Podarcis as does the quite closely related species air L. dugesii and L. perspicikata. Lacerta Iaevis probabl is connected closely to Podarcis, too. Lacerta parva shows a closer relationship to the `small izards` than to the sub-genus Lacerta s. str. A clear decision concerning the position of the Lacerta danfordi complex according to chemosystematical data was not possible. It is isolated from the other species probably about as long as L. puma. Biochemical differences between its `species` are too small to confirm their taxonomical revalorisation by Eiselt and Schmidtler Within the Lacerta saxicola complex the investigated taxa show a close relationship. Lacerta praticola and L. derjugini were definitly assigned to this group.

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The infestation of an Artwin lizard of the subspecies Darevskia derjugini barani with larvae of the common woodbuck Ixodes ricinus in Georgia is documented.

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The taxonomic categories such as population and subspecies were studied on the example of three Caucasian lizard species of genus Darevskia - D. praticola, D. derjugini, and D. rudis by comparing the morphological data and results inferred from nuclear DNA markers. RAPD and new inter-MIR-PCR (IM-PCR) methods were used. The IM-PCR was used to characterize the lacertid DNA fragments located between dispersed SINE type repeats which occurred to be ortologous to mammalian repeats of the same type. It was shown that separation of the Northern population of D. derjugini (subspecies silvatica) is supported by the comparison with two Southern populations (derjugini and barani). The latter ones, in their turn, are very similar and hardly can be considered as good subspecies by the genetic distance. The subspecific division of D. praticola (praticola and pontica) also requires more specification. For example, several populations from North Caucasus (ssp. praticola) occurred to be heterogeneous. The level of differences between ssp. praticola and pontica is of the same order as in some of the praticola populations. Low level of molecular differences between two subspecies of D. rudis (obscura and bischoffi) does not confirm their validity as a full subspecies.