Partially melanic specimen of the grass snake Natrix natrix  (Linnaeus, 1758) from  the Eastern Carpathians collected for the first time in Slovakia is described in detail. The morphological characters are within the ranges of subspecies N. n. natrix reported for Slovakia.

Molecular phytogeny and evolutionary history of the genus Natrix, with notes on the intraspecific differentiation of N. natrix. To elucidate the evolutionary history of the genus Natrix and to address questions of intraspecilic variation in N. natrix, we analysed sequences of four mitochondrial genes. With the help of fossil and paleogeographic information a molecular clock was calibrated to estimate the most impor¬tant divergence times. Our data clearly support a genus phytogeny with N. maura at the basal position and N. natrix and N. tessdlata assister species. With evolutionary rates of 1-1.35 % diver¬gence per one million years and genetic distances of 13.4-14.5 % between species and up to 8.9 % within species, the three species probably evolved independently since the middle Miocene and intraspecific differentiation most likely started in the late Miocene. Intraspecific genetic variation in all three species is clearly correlated to geographic regions. Although the available sampling is far too small to allow for a comprehensive discussion of intraspecific differentiation in N. ma¬trix, our data clearly support a European origin for the species and suggest that at least five evo¬lutionary lineages can be distinguished on the Eurasian mainland. These lineages correspond to populations from (1) the Iberian peninsula, (2) Italy, western Germany, France, and England, (3) Germany east of the river Rhine and Scandinavia, (4) the Balcans and southern Greece, and (5) Turkey, the Caucasian countries, Russia and Kazakhstan. A comparison of these lineages with the phenotypically derived subspecies in N. natrix supports the existence of a contact zone between two distinct taxonomical lineages in central Europe as well as the differentiation of the Iberian {N. n. astreptophora) and western European populations (N. n helvetica).