Platyceps najadum

Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831) Remarks. One individual (Fig. 1 A) was observed on 15 May 2018 in Pustenik (42.149952, 21.282107) (Fig. 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).