Species:

Eremias aria  ANDERSON & LEVITON, 1967

Common names:

East-Afghan Racerunner (English)
Steppenrenner (German)

Types:

Holotype: CAS 96204, Paratype: CAS 96205

Terra Typica:

Balabagh near Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Taxonomic notes:

Subgenus Eremias sensu stricto

Relevant taxonomic literature:

• Anderson, S.C. & Leviton, A.E. (1967) -  A new species of Eremias (Sauria: Lacertidae) from Afghanistan. -  Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences, 64: 1-4.  

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• Wagner, P. & Bauer, A.M. & Leviton, A.E. & Wilms, T.M. & Böhme, W. (2016) -  A Checklist of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Afghanistan Exploring Herpetodiversity using Biodiversity Archives. -  Proceedings of the Californian Academy of Sciences, Series 4, 63 (13): 457-565.    

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  The composition and distribution of the vertebrate fauna of Afghanistan remain poorly documented and in recent decades little new data have become available due to a series of wars and the resulting unstable security conditions. As Afghanistan returns to some semblance of normalcy, baseline faunistic data will be particularly important for establishing national conservation priorities as well as for placing Afghan taxa into their broader phylogenetic and zoogeographic contexts. We here provide an updated checklist of the herpetofauna of Afghanistan based in part upon biodiversity archives of specimen records from several museum and private collec- tions as well as literature references and field research. The herpetofauna of Afghanistan consists of 118 species and subspecies belonging to 58 genera and 21 families. Seven species are endemic to the country, whereas 18 taxa have to be delet- ed from previous lists of the Afghan herpetofauna. Afghanistan’s primary zoogeo- graphic relationship to the Palearctic Region is reaffirmed but with secondary influ- ence from the Oriental Region. Immediately following the checklist, two sections provide information about species probably occurring in Afghanistan and previous- ly mentioned species that are now recognized as absent.