Meriones (Pallasiomys) libycus Lichtenstein, 1823

Aidek, Ahmad E., Ibrahim, Amir, Amr, Zuhair, Hutterer, Rainer, Kryštufek, Boris, Serra, Gianluca, Benda, Petr, Shkaky, Yesra, Barbanera, Filippo & Al-Sheikhly, Omar F., 2025, Checklist of Mammals of Syria, Zootaxa 5580 (1), pp. 1-130 : 44

26. Libyan Jird, Meriones (Pallasiomys) libycus Lichtenstein, 1823

(IUCN Red List: LC)

Subspecies: M. l. erythrourus (Gray, 1842) and M. l. syrius Thomas, 1919.

Distribution: Common with a wide range; restricted to arid and semi-arid areas ( Fig. 32 ).

Previous records: Deir ez-Zor ( Aharoni 1932), vicinity of Tall Abiad ( Misonne 1957), Al-Qaryatein, Khan Abou Chamate, and the vicinity of Palmyra ( Harrison 1972), Talila Reserve to the northeast of Palmyra ( Habibi 1998), ar- Rasafah (Shehab et al. 2004), 90 km east of Damascus along the highway to Palmyra, south of an-Nasiriyah, and Mhassa near Al-Qaryatein ( Mamkhair et al. 2007), vicinity of Palmyra ( Serra 2002; Serra et al. 2009a, b), and Dumair ( Shehab et al. 2018).

Remarks: Meriones l. erythrourus (Gray, 1842) is reported from the eastern parts of the Euphrates Valley; M. l. syrius Thomas, 1919, which was first described from Al-Qaryatein ( Harrison & Bates1991), is confined to the western parts of the Euphrates Valley. However, based on the phylogeographic study carried out by Dianat et al. (2019), only M. l. syrius occurs in Syria.

Figures

FIGURE 32. Records of the Libyan Jird Meriones (Pallasiomys) libycus Lichtenstein, 1823 in Syria.