A unique massif of sand desert dominated by Calligonum polygonoides L. bushes in the TR05-65 location in Iğdır Province (Ağrı Mountain northwestern foothill area). A-B, Calligonum polygonoides L.; C, Capnodis excisa excisa Mén.; D, Eremias strauchi Kessler, 1878; E, Testudo graeca L. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... unique sand desert dominated by bushes of Calligonum polygonoides L. in the TR- 05-65 location in Iğdır Province (northwestern lowland area of Ağrı Mountain) is apparently the most interesting among the desert associations (Figs. 8A-B). Capnodis excisa excisa Ménétriés, 1848 (Buprestidae) (Fig. 8C), a large jewel beetle oligophagous on this plant, is quite common here and occurs outside this area only east of the Caspian Sea in the deserts of Middle Asia, Iran, and Middle East. In addition to this buprestid, two specialized weevils live on Calligonum L., and several other desert insects occur in the desert, including a characteristic ant-lion. Several species of lizards e.g., Eremias strauchi Kessler, 1878 (Fig. 8D), some of them also narrowly distributed, and a tortoise Testudo graeca Linnaeus, 1758 ( Fig. 8E) live here. This means that the desert fragment we found, although small and impoverished, still preserves many of its characteristic biocoenotic features and components and may be a model of the aborigine vegetation. Unfortunately this area is being intensely forested in recent years; many hectares are covered with planted Robinia pseudoacacia L. with the mid-May aspect dominated by ruderal Lepidium vesicarium L. and Sisymbrium loeselii L. (the latter plant is allelopathic against other species growing around it, i. e., suppressing their germination and growth). These species are good forage plants for the honey bee Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761 but are unequal substitutes for an endemic, highly characteristic natural complex of the Calligonum sand ...

Context 2

... unique sand desert dominated by bushes of Calligonum polygonoides L. in the TR- 05-65 location in Iğdır Province (northwestern lowland area of Ağrı Mountain) is apparently the most interesting among the desert associations (Figs. 8A-B). Capnodis excisa excisa Ménétriés, 1848 (Buprestidae) (Fig. 8C), a large jewel beetle oligophagous on this plant, is quite common here and occurs outside this area only east of the Caspian Sea in the deserts of Middle Asia, Iran, and Middle East. In addition to this buprestid, two specialized weevils live on Calligonum L., and several other desert insects occur in the desert, including a characteristic ant-lion. Several species of lizards e.g., Eremias strauchi Kessler, 1878 (Fig. 8D), some of them also narrowly distributed, and a tortoise Testudo graeca Linnaeus, 1758 ( Fig. 8E) live here. This means that the desert fragment we found, although small and impoverished, still preserves many of its characteristic biocoenotic features and components and may be a model of the aborigine vegetation. Unfortunately this area is being intensely forested in recent years; many hectares are covered with planted Robinia pseudoacacia L. with the mid-May aspect dominated by ruderal Lepidium vesicarium L. and Sisymbrium loeselii L. (the latter plant is allelopathic against other species growing around it, i. e., suppressing their germination and growth). These species are good forage plants for the honey bee Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761 but are unequal substitutes for an endemic, highly characteristic natural complex of the Calligonum sand ...

Context 3

... unique sand desert dominated by bushes of Calligonum polygonoides L. in the TR- 05-65 location in Iğdır Province (northwestern lowland area of Ağrı Mountain) is apparently the most interesting among the desert associations (Figs. 8A-B). Capnodis excisa excisa Ménétriés, 1848 (Buprestidae) (Fig. 8C), a large jewel beetle oligophagous on this plant, is quite common here and occurs outside this area only east of the Caspian Sea in the deserts of Middle Asia, Iran, and Middle East. In addition to this buprestid, two specialized weevils live on Calligonum L., and several other desert insects occur in the desert, including a characteristic ant-lion. Several species of lizards e.g., Eremias strauchi Kessler, 1878 (Fig. 8D), some of them also narrowly distributed, and a tortoise Testudo graeca Linnaeus, 1758 ( Fig. 8E) live here. This means that the desert fragment we found, although small and impoverished, still preserves many of its characteristic biocoenotic features and components and may be a model of the aborigine vegetation. Unfortunately this area is being intensely forested in recent years; many hectares are covered with planted Robinia pseudoacacia L. with the mid-May aspect dominated by ruderal Lepidium vesicarium L. and Sisymbrium loeselii L. (the latter plant is allelopathic against other species growing around it, i. e., suppressing their germination and growth). These species are good forage plants for the honey bee Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761 but are unequal substitutes for an endemic, highly characteristic natural complex of the Calligonum sand ...

Context 4

... unique sand desert dominated by bushes of Calligonum polygonoides L. in the TR- 05-65 location in Iğdır Province (northwestern lowland area of Ağrı Mountain) is apparently the most interesting among the desert associations (Figs. 8A-B). Capnodis excisa excisa Ménétriés, 1848 (Buprestidae) (Fig. 8C), a large jewel beetle oligophagous on this plant, is quite common here and occurs outside this area only east of the Caspian Sea in the deserts of Middle Asia, Iran, and Middle East. In addition to this buprestid, two specialized weevils live on Calligonum L., and several other desert insects occur in the desert, including a characteristic ant-lion. Several species of lizards e.g., Eremias strauchi Kessler, 1878 (Fig. 8D), some of them also narrowly distributed, and a tortoise Testudo graeca Linnaeus, 1758 ( Fig. 8E) live here. This means that the desert fragment we found, although small and impoverished, still preserves many of its characteristic biocoenotic features and components and may be a model of the aborigine vegetation. Unfortunately this area is being intensely forested in recent years; many hectares are covered with planted Robinia pseudoacacia L. with the mid-May aspect dominated by ruderal Lepidium vesicarium L. and Sisymbrium loeselii L. (the latter plant is allelopathic against other species growing around it, i. e., suppressing their germination and growth). These species are good forage plants for the honey bee Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761 but are unequal substitutes for an endemic, highly characteristic natural complex of the Calligonum sand ...

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... largest still existing desert massifs are probably those in the Aras valley in the most northeastern corner of Turkey. These are sand deserts several kilometers long dominated by Calligonum polygonoides L. (Figs. 8A-B); the neighbouring sand deserts with one species of Salsola L.; multi-species chenopod deserts with Alhagi Gagnebin on saline soils; and stony or gravel deserts and semideserts along Aras in Iğdır Province. Although possessing a fairly impoverished fauna and often being considerably overgrazed, these deserts are apparently the last westernmost refuges of the Turanian (= lowland Middle Asian) biota now largely extinct from the Transcaucasia and present only east of the Caspian Sea. Many plants still harbour species-rich herbivorous assemblages not known from other parts of Turkey, and some species of beetles are endemic to Northeast Turkey and south-eastern Transcaucasia, e.g., Bruchela kasparyani Korotyaev, 1988, B. sugonyaevi Korotyaev, 1988, B. verae Korotyaev, 1988, B. hesperidis Iablokoff-Khnzorian, 1957, Perapion (Hemiperapion) horvathi (Schilsky, 1901) Reitter, 1903(Korotyaev et al. 2015), Theodorinus transcaucasicus Korotyaev, 1989 (Curculionidae). For preservation of these relatively (as compared to the agricultural areas) small refuges of a native desert biota, the arrangement of nature reserves is most ...