Chapter 16 The Potential Distribution of Darevskia derjugini (Nikolsky, 1898) with New Locality Records from Turkey Muammer KURNAZ * , Serkan GÜL ** , Ufuk BÜLBÜL *** , Bilal KUTRUP *** INTRODUCTION The genus Darevskia (Arribas, 1997), distributed from the Caucasus to Balkans and from the Middle East to Anatolia, is represented with the most lizard species in Turkey (http://www.reptile-database.org/). Fifteen species (D. armeniaca Mehely, 1909; D. bendimahiensis Schmidtler et al., 1994; D. bithynica Mehely, 1909; D. clarkorum Darevsky and Vedmederja, 1977; D. derjugini Nikolsky, 1898; D. dryada Darevsky and Tuniyev, 1997; D. nairensis Darevsky 1967; D. parvula Lantz and Cyren, 1913; D. pontica Lantz and Cyren, 1919; D. raddei Boettger, 1892; D. rudis Bedriaga, 1886; D. sapphirina Schmidtler et al., 1994; D. unisexualis Darevsky, 1966; D. uzzeli Darevsky and Danielyan, 1977 and D. valentini Boettger, 1892) occur in Turkish populations including the Eastern and Central Anatolia as well as the Marmara and Black Sea regions (Baran & Atatür, 1998; Sindaco, Venchi, Carpaneto & Bologna, 2000; Ananjeva et al., 2006; Arribas et al., 2013; Baran, Ilgaz, Avcı, Kumlutaş & Olgun, 2012; http://www.reptile-database.org/). Darevskia derjugini was first described by Nikolsky (1898) from Artvin province. The samples belonging to this species were collected by Derjugin. Nikolsky denominated the species as Derjugin’s Lizard, and type locality of the species was determined to be Artvin. After a long time, in 1972, a new locality record was given by Clark from 45 km east of Ardanuç (near Şavşat) and 15 km west of Borçka in Turkey. Later, Clark and Clark (1973) recorded the species from Arsin (Trabzon), 20 km west of Borçka and 50 km northwest of Ardahan (near Şavşat). In the subsequent studies, several locality records related to the distribution in Turkey of the species were given by many researchers (Baran, 1977; Bischoff, 1982; Teynié, 1987; Mulder, 1995; Baran, Tosunoğlu, Kaya & Kumlutaş, 1997; Franzen, 1999; Franzen, 2000; Kutrup, 2001; Ilgaz, 2004; Bischoff, Franzen & Schmidtler, 2005; Afsar, Ayaz, Afsar, Çiçek & Tok, 2012). With this locality records, the distribution boundaries of the species in Turkey were determined to be the easternmost Artvin (Georgian border) and the westernmost Giresun (Güdül village). Darevskia derjugini is one of the small-sized lizards among the Caucasian rock * Grad. Student, Karadeniz Teknik University, Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Biology, Trabzon ** Assist. Prof. Dr., Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Biology, Rize, Turkey *** Assoc. Prof. Dr., Karadeniz Teknik University, Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Biology, Trabzon *** Prof. Dr., Karadeniz Teknik University, Faculty of Arts and Science, Department of Biology, Trabzon