Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831)

Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831) View in CoL

Remarks.

One individual (Fig. 1 A View Figure 1 ) was observed on 15 May 2018 in Pustenik ( 42.149952, 21.282107) (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ), found in grass near the forest. This is a new record for the Republic of Kosovo, both for the genus and the species. Platyceps najadum is distributed across a relatively wide area, including much of the Balkans ( Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey) and other more distant regions ( Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Russia, and Turkmenistan) ( Uetz et al. 2025). The zoogeographic gap in Kosovo is thus predictably closed. A reported death from the bite of this species elsewhere ( Chroni et al. 2005) is highly suspect and likely erroneous (see below).