The first comprehensive data on the distribution of reptiles within the Southern Bug eco-corridor, Ukraine Author Oskyrko, Oleksandra https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0092-4193 NGO " Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group " (UNCG), Gogol 40, 08600, Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, Ukraine & Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, 12844, Prague, Czech Republic sashaoskirko@gmail.com Author Jablonski, Daniel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5394-0114 Department of Zoology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynska dolina, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia text Herpetozoa 2021 2021-04-26 34 97 114 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.34.e62459 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.34.e62459 2682-955X-34-97 7C6C7F1395FD5892B66F1288D83491E9 06224CAD-47EC-45DF-BFD4-B50B46DA92F8 Eremias arguta (Pallas, 1773) Numbers of records. 26 (2.7% of the data). Number of grid cells. 16 (5.4% of the entire grid; Table 1 ; Figs 4 , 8B ) Comments. Eremias arguta was reported from the northern part and along the Southern Bug River to the Black Sea coast ( Szczerbak 1993 ; Dotsenko and Radchenko 2005 ; Tarashchuk 2007 ; Sillero et al. 2014 ). We found this species only in four localities: one north of Mykolaiv city near the Balovne Village, and three near the estuary Galitsynove Village and Kinburn Spit. Historic records from the northern part of the Mykolaiv Oblast are particularly interesting because this species has practically disappeared from central Ukraine. We checked these points (Oniscoves, Sirovo, Rybakivka, Oleksandrivka and Voznesensk villages; Szczerbak 1993 ; Dotsenko and Radchenko 2005 ), but did not find the species there. In Ukraine, the species' range is limited to the steppe and, partially, the forest-steppe zones. It inhabits biotopes with sandy and sandy-shells soils with thin psammophilous steppe and halophilous herbaceous vegetation ( Szczerbak 1993 ). As forests grow and the crowns of the trees close, E. arguta gradually disappears. An increase of the projective cover of herbaceous vegetation leads to the same result ( Polynova and Mishustin 2020 ). Strict requirements for substrate and light lead to a mosaic-strip character of the subspecies' distribution ( Kotenko 1986 ). We hypothesize that we did not find the species in the north because previously suitable habitats have been planted with forests in the 1990s ( Tkach 2012 ).