Peloponnese 26th of April – 7th of May 2006

Part 2: Short stops in the area of Megalopoli

After a long journey we stopped on a pass near Megalopoli and waited for the second car. In the meantime we surveyed a meadow with a diverse orchid flora and lots of Ablepharus and Typhlops which we found under stones. Finally, Thomas found a beautiful male Eryx jaculus that was also under a stone – according to Keymar it is the first record in this area and also in this elevation. Megalopoli lies on an elevation of 430 m so we estimated our record to be about 600 m above sea level which correlates well to our map.

When we came back from the south we made another stop nearby Alphios River and found a highly diverse herpetofauna. In total we found four lacertids here: L. trilineata, P. peloponnesiaca, A. moreoticus and Podarcis taurica, the green meadow lizard, which was present in high numbers.

After a quite long time without finding a really big snake Hannes (who else?) was lucky and caught a huge Malpolon monspessulanus – what a beauty!

Malpolon monspessulanus: Lenght about 130cm

Other records in this area were P. ridibundus (grey to olive colour), A. kitaibelii, Natrix natrix (typical persa form) and Anguis cephallonicus. The grass snakes are highly variable on the Peloponnese, which you will see later…

The endemic slow worm shows the typical neck flames and has a really dark (black) ventral side. In the south part of the peninsula we only found the cephallonicus form which inhabits mostly forests and moisture habitats.

Part3: Mani peninsula – coastal area

Part1: Argolis Peninsula