Subspecies:

Darevskia rudis lantzicyreni  (DAREVSKY & EISELT, 1967)

Types:

Lectotype (designated by Darevsky & Eiselt 1967): GNM 2459, female.

Terra Typica:

Erciyes Dað, ca. 1900 asl.” [Erciyes (= Erdschias) Dagh in Kayseri, Central Anatolia, Turkey].

Taxonomic notes:

As early as 2002, WOLFGANG BISCHOFF pointed out the great similarity in scale structure, coloring and pattern of Darevskia valentini lantzicyreni with Darevskia rudis and took the view that lantzicyreni is more closely associated with Darevskia rudis.

Etymology: Named after the French herpetologist Louis A. Lantz (1886–1953) and the Swedish herpetologist Carl A. O. Cyrén (1878–1946), who made a significant contribution to the taxonomy of the Caucasian lizards.

Relevant taxonomic literature:

• Darevsky, I.S. & Eiselt, J. (1967) -  Ein neuer Name für Lacerta saxicola mehelyi, Lantz und Cyrén, 1936. -  Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 70: 107.  

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• Eiselt, J. & Darevsky, I.S. & Schmidtler, J.F. (1992) -  Untersuchungen an Felseneidechsen (Lacerta saxicola komplex) in der östlichen Türkei. I. Lacerta valentini Boettger. -  Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 93B: 1-18.    

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  Series of newly collected specimens of Lacerta valentini BOETTGER in Eastern Turkey were closely investigated in order to demarcate the areas of the subspecies L. v. valentini and L. v. lantzicyreni. Intermediary populations were found to exist between them, one was described as a new subspecies, Lacerta valentini spitzenbergerae, living in the Cilo-Dag Mountains, Vilayet Hakkâri, Turk

• Bischoff, W. (2002) -  Bemerkungen zu Lacerta c. cappadocica WERNER, 1902 und Darevskia valentini lantzicyreni (DAREVSKY & EISELT, 1967 am Erciyes Daği. -  Die Eidechse, Bonn, 13 (2): 61-63.  

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• Arribas, O. & Candan, K. & Kornilios, P. & Ayaz, D. & Kumlutas, Y. & Gül, S. & Yilmaz, C. & Yildirim Caynak, E. & Ilgaz, C. (2022) -  Revising the taxonomy of Darevskia valentini (Boettger, 1892) and Darevskia rudis (Bedriaga, 1886) (Squamata, Lacertidae): a Morpho-Phylogenetic integrated study in a complex Anatolian scenario. -  Zootaxa, 5224 (1): 1-68.    

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  Revealing biodiversity allows the accurate determination of the underlying causes of many biological processes such as speciation and hybridization. These processes contain many complex patterns, especially in areas with high species diversity. As two of the prominent zoogeographic areas, Anatolia and Caucasus are also home to the genus Darevskia, which has a complex morphological structure and parthenogenetic speciation. Darevskia valentini and D. rudis are two largely distributed taxa of this genus, both of which have a controversial taxonomic delimitation. Here we performed both a highly detailed morphological comparison and a molecular evaluation for the populations in both species groups. The most comprehensive taxonomic revision of this complex was carried out to determine the cases where the data obtained were compatible or not with each approach. As a result of the obtained outputs, it seems that D. spitzenbergerae stat. nov., D. mirabilis stat. nov. and D. obscura stat. nov. should be accepted as the species level, this later with subspecies D. o. bischoffi comb. nov. and D. o. macromaculata comb. nov.. Also, we propose two new taxa: D. josefschmidtleri sp. nov. and D. spitzenbergerae wernermayeri ssp. nov.. It has also been shown that “lantzicyreni” subspecies belong to D. rudis instead of D. valentini. The extensive revision has contributed to subsequent studies to more accurately understand the past histories of species in the genus Darevskia.