The genus Blanus Wagler, 1830 represents limbless, burrowing reptiles of the family Blanidae with disjunct circum-Mediterranean distribution. The recently described species Blanus alexandri Sindaco, Kornilios, Sacchi & Lymberakis, 2014 is known from south-eastern Turkey with a presumed occurrence in the Levant and Iraq. We provide here records from Lebanon and confirm the affiliation of Lebanese populations to this species by mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Blanus alexandri comprises at least seven deeply evolved phylogenetic clades with up to 11% of uncorrected p-distances in their mitochondrial DNA. This suggests a probably older than the Miocene origin of some of these clades. Populations from Lebanon form a different clade with a genetic diversity that is close to populations from southern Turkey.

中文翻译：

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黎巴嫩Blanus（Amphisbaenia：Blanidae）的物种身份和生物地理学

Blanus Wagler 属，1830 年代表 Blanidae 科的无肢、穴居爬行动物，在地中海周围分布不连续。最近描述的物种 Blanus alexandri Sindaco、Kornilios、Sacchi 和 Lymberakis，2014 年在土耳其东南部已知，推测发生在黎凡特和伊拉克。我们在此提供来自黎巴嫩的记录，并通过线粒体和核 DNA 确认黎巴嫩人口与该物种的联系。Blanus alexandri 包含至少 7 个深度进化的系统发育进化枝，其线粒体 DNA 中未校正的 p 距离高达 11%。这表明其中一些进化枝的起源可能比中新世更古老。来自黎巴嫩的种群形成了一个不同的进化枝，其遗传多样性与来自土耳其南部的种群接近。