Iran 2008

[Anthony Darby]

Not sure why the bush cricket would be valuable? Perhaps dipped in chocolate? I buy southern European House Crickets @ ~£10/1000 for the chameleons.

Do you have to let these loose in the house Anthony so the chameleons can catch them? Don't suppose they want them dished up dead on a plate.

Chameleons and crickets confined. Not sure what species the tortoise is as it doesn't fit the species found round the Med.

[Maggi Young]

The Moleskin Iris is thought to be a hybrid, but the parents are unknown.  Jim Archibald wrote an article for the AGS Bulletin called something like "Queens of the Desert".  He spoke about Iris meda, acutiloba, lycotis and others.  He also spoke about the Moleskin.  If my volumes were in order I would be able to give you the reference - ANYONE ORGANISED?
I think the tortoise is a junior - we found two of this size.
I think you are right about the Frit imperialis.

Arthur, the article by Jim Archibald you mention is in Volume 67 No. 3. pages 245 to page 264. The title is " Silken sad uncertain queens"..... a quote from Reginald Farrer.



We need "Bio" from France, the Tortoise expert to help with the other question! I will PM her!

[art600]

Maggi

I knew you were organised.

[Maggi Young]

I appreciate your faith in me, Arthur, however misplaced it may often be!! 

[Tony Willis]

Arthur I hope you do not mind me posting these here but I thought Anthony might be interested in seeing them

I found several newly hatched baby tortoises just like that shown by Arthur on the Black Sea Coast and they look nothing like the adults found in the same area.Naturally I have an identical photograph with one in the palm of my hand.It is on a slide and I cannot find it,if only I was organised!
 The adults seem to be quite variable depending on the habitat and a non biological description would be those in open habitat are rounded and those from dense forest quite flattened often with flanges on the shell.

[art600]

Just outside of Sanandaj there is a hill.  In the good times i.e. a normal season, there were many goodies.  This year the climb reminded me of the film 'The Hill' where soldiers were forced to climb a manufactured hill in full gear, including a large rucksack.
This is me with our guide, at the top, explaining that I had not expected to find anything - and I had not been disappointed!  Well we did find a large tortoise.

Here is that large tortoise.  It was at least 30cm. long

[Maggi Young]

When I was a little girl in Libya, I had a large collection of tortoises that my Father's soldiers brought me from all over the place..... not that such things would be countenanced nowadays but this was many moons ago and the gathered shell dwellers had free range in an enormous garden. They were obviously different species but I had no idea which, only that I found them quite fascinating and a joy to observe. The largest would have been around 60 cms, measured over the dome of the shell. A most impressive sight!   Those were Happy Days indeed.

[ranunculus]

You've certainly come out of your shell since then Maggi!   

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for these extra pics and tortoise notes. I like them so much but we have nothing like them here alas.

Thanks too Arthur for the note about Archibald's article and Maggi for the reference. I remember it and read it avidly at the time, though don't remember the "moleskin" note. I"ll go back to it almost immediately.The Farrer quotation seems so apt, when we look at them in cultivation, though pictures on the Forum over the last couple of years suggest at least some people are learning their tricks and their manners, to misquote Dickens.

[Anthony Darby]

There are two species of tortoise in Iran: Testudo graeca and Agrionemys horsfieldi. The former is recognised by a spur on the thigh.

[Tony Willis]

I have always had a passing interest in them and enjoy seeing them in the wild ,they are quite numerous in Greece and Turkey and easy to find. The down side is that they are invariably covered in lice. Having now been prompted to look at then further they seem as fascinating and as complicated as plants  and every variation seems to have been put in a sub species. A good pictorial link.

http://www.chelonia.org/testudo_gallery.htm

[Anthony Darby]

Testudo graeca ibera is found in the west and north of Iran and T. g. zarudnyi in the east and southern.

[art600]

Anthony

Think this is the Jewelled beetle

[Anthony Darby]

Ah, Buprestidae. These are used as living jewels and in some countries they encrust them with precious stones.

[art600]