170 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 64, No. 8 
vided in Kramer and Schnurren- 
berger (1963). Le Berre (1989) 
and Schleich et al. (1996) give 
maps showing the approximate 
extent of each species’ distribu¬ 
tion, whereas the remaining 
sources present occurrence data 
at the one degree square level. 
A subsequent section on dis¬ 
tribution provides a statement of 
the taxon’s global distribution 
and a summary of its occurrence 
in Libya, with relevant com¬ 
ments, if any. This is followed by 
a list of specific Libyan locali¬ 
ties, these are organized by dis¬ 
trict (, shabiyah ), starting in 
Tripolitania, then Fezzan, and 
finally Cyrenaica. When Libya 
was under Ottoman and later Ital¬ 
ian rule it was, at times, governed 
as there separate provinces or 
govemorates, Tripolitania, Cyre¬ 
naica and Fezzan, roughly corre¬ 
sponding to regions recognized 
since antiquity. Although these 
regional subdivisions have, espe¬ 
cially in modern times, not 
always been recognized official¬ 
ly, they nonetheless have 
remained in common use, both 
within Libya and outside. In the 
post-colonial era several differ¬ 
ent schemes of subdivision have 
been in sequential use. A system 
of 25 administrative divisions 
0 baladiyat ) was used beginning 
in 1988 (Fig. 7), but the country 
was reorganized into 13 districts 
( shabiyat, singular shabiyah ) in 
1995. This number increased to 
26 in 1998 and 32 in 2001, and 
most recently was reduced to 22 
in 2007 (Fig. 8). Rather confus¬ 
ingly some of the former bal¬ 
adiyat correspond exactly or 
nearly so to shabiyat, but others 
Figure 7. Map of Libya showing the 25 baladiyat (administrative districts) 
in use in Libya in 1988. 
Figure 8. Map of Libya showing the 22 shabiyat (districts) currently in use 
in Libya. 
