BAUER, DEBOER, & TAYLOR: ATLAS OF THE REPTILES OF LIBYA 
171 
do not. We illustrate both the 1988 and 2007 systems to facilitate the interpretation of localities that 
might be confusing, but only the 2007 shabiyat are given in the list of localities. 
Each locality is numbered and corresponds to an entry in the gazetteer provided in the Appen¬ 
dix which gives the current name of the locality as well as older names or variants recorded in pub¬ 
lished records or associated with museum specimens. Both museum specimens and published 
sources are given for each locality. Specimens and citations too imprecise to allow for mapping are 
listed at the end of each set of localities, with whatever details are known. A co mm ents section 
includes discussion of taxonomic and distributional issues for the taxon in general and as they 
relate to Libya in particular. Finally, the IUCN threat category for each species is provided, based 
on the information available at www.iucnredlist.org/. 
Chelonia 
Family Cheloniidae 
Caretta caretta (Linnaeus 1758:197) 
1758 Testudo caretta Linnaeus, Systema Naturas per Regna Tria Naturas, Secundum Classes, Ordines, 
Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Lau- 
rentii Salvii, Holmias [(Stockholm], Sweden. (4) + 823 + (I) pp. 
Syntypes. — Specimens illustrated in plate 39 of Catesby (1736 [see Overstreet (2015) for dating of 
Catesby’s plates]) and described by Gronovius (1756), “insulas Americana” [restricted to “Bermuda Islands” 
by Smith and Taylor (1950b) and to “Bimini, British Bahamas by Schmidt (1953)]. Smith and Taylor (1950b) 
indicated that the type was u nk nown and King and Burke (1989) and Dodd (1990) stated that no type had been 
designated, whereas Parker (1939) and Wallin (1985) stated that the name was based entirely on literary 
sources for which there were no surviving specimens. Bauer (2012) explicitly identified two specimens as 
syntypes. Neither is believed to be extant. Although Gronovius’s fish collection ultimately was obtained by 
the British Museum of Natural History (now The Natural History Museum, London) (Wheeler 1958), the fate 
of the herpetological portion of the collection is uncertain. Wallin (1985) identified three presumed types of 
Testudo mydas Linnaeus, 1758 as belonging to this species. 
Caretta caretta , Schleich, Kastle, and Kabisch 1996:159. 
Caretta caretta , Sindaco and Jeremcenko 2008:76. 
Distribution.— Widely distributed in tropical to temperate waters of the Pacific, Indian, and 
Atlantic Oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea. In the Mediterranean nesting sites occur in 
Libya, Italy, Turkey, and the Aegean islands. There are numerous non-nesting records along the 
Egyptian coast (Baha El Din 2006a). In Libya they nest primarily between Sirte and Kouf Nation¬ 
al Park (Resetar 1981; Laurent et al. 1997; Saied et al. 2012). 
Libyan Records (Map 1): TRIPOLITANIA: Tripoli : 44: Haddoud and El Gomati 2011. Mis- 
ratah : 89: Hamza et al. 2009; Hamza 2010. 90: Hamza 2010. 91: Hamza 2010. 92: Hamza et al. 
2009; Hamza 2010. 93: Hamza 2010. 94: Hamza 2010. 95: Hamza 2010. 96: Hamza 2010. 98: 
Hamza 2010. Sirte : 165: Hamza 2010. 167: Hamza 2010. 168: Hamza 2010. 169: Hamza 2010. 
170: Hamza 2010. 171: Hamza et al. 2009; Hamza 2010. 172: Hamza 2010. 173: Hamza et al. 
2009; Hamza 2010; Haddoud and El Gomati 2011. 177: Laurent et al. 1997. 179: Laurent et al. 
1997. 180: Laurent et al. 1997. 183: Laurent et al. 1997. 193: Laurent et al. 1997. CYRENAICA: 
Benghazi : 339: Haddoud and El Gomati 2011. 369: Hamza 2010. 370: Hamza 2010. 371: Hamza 
2010. 373: Hamza 2010. 375: Laurent et al. 1997. Marj : 386: Laurent et al. 1997. 390: Hamza 
2010. 391: Schleich 1987. 392: Schleich 1987. 393: Hamza 2010. 394: Schleich 1987. 395: Hamza 
2010. 396: Schleich 1987. 397: Hamza 2010. Jabal al Akhdar: 410: Laurent et al. 1997. 413: 
