amphibian-reptile-conservation.org tates of America Published in the U j| i V ' -2018 • VOLUME 12 • NUMBER 1 ISSN: 1083-446X elSSN: 1525-9153 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 1-4 (el50). New distributional records of the Toad-headed Pitviper Bothrocophias hyoprora (Amaral, 1935) in Brazil ^uciana Silva de Oliveira, 2 lvanei Souza Araujo, 3 Ana Lucia da Costa Prudente, 4 Rafael de Fraga, 5 Alexandre Pinheiro de Almeida, and 6 Alexandre Cordeiro Ascenso 13 ’ 6 Setor de Herpetologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Avenida Perimetral, 1901, 66077-830, Belem, Para, BRAZIL 2 Setor de Entomologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Avenida Perimetral, 1901, 66077-830, Belem, Para, BRAZIL 4 Universidade Federal do Oeste do Para, Instituto de Ciencias e Tecnologia das Aguas, Av. Mendonca Furtado 2946, 68040-050, Santarem, Para, BRAZIL 5 Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Zoologia, Av. General Rodrigo Octavio Jordao Ramos 3000, 69077-000, Manaus, Amazonas, BRAZIL Keywords. Viperidae, snake, Amazonian herpetofauna, Canutama, Altamira, distribution extension Citation: Oliveira LS, Araujo IS, Prudente ALC, Fraga R, Almeida AP, Ascenso AC. 2018. New distributional records of the Toad-headed Pitviper Bothrocophias hyoprora (Amaral, 1935) in Brazil. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 1-4 (el 50). Copyright: © 2018 Oliveira et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation-, official journal website . Received: 06 July 2017; Accepted: 04 October 2017; Published: 21 January 2018 The genus Bothrocophias Gutberlet and Campbell 2001 is a monophyletic entity composed of six species: Bothrocophias andianns (Amaral, 1923), B. campbelli (Freire- Lascano, 1991), B. colombianus (Rendahl and Vestergren, 1941), B. hyoprora (Amaral, 1935), B. microphthalmus (Cope, 1875), and B. myersi Gutberlet and Campbell, 2001 (Carrasco et al. 2012). It is widely distributed in tropical lowland forests of the Amazon basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil (Campbell and Lamar 2004; Fenwick et al. 2009; Carrasco et al. 2012; Wallach et al. 2014). Among the Bothrocophias species, the Toad-head Pitviper (B. hyoprora) exhibits the widest distribution, occurring in lowland Amazonian forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil (Campbell and Lamar 2004; Cisneros-Heredia et al. 2006). In the Brazilian Amazon, the species is broadly distributed from the western Amazonas to the eastern middle Tapajos River, also occurring at the states of Acre, Ronddnia, and Mato Grosso (Bernarde et al. 2011; Mendes-Pinto and Souza 2011; Carvalho et al. 2013). According to the available literature, Bothrocophias hyoprora is often found on the leaf litter near water bodies (Campbell and Lamar 2004), and feeds upon centipedes, anurans, lizards, and rodents (Martins and Oliveira 1998; Martins et al. 2002). We herein report two vouchered specimens and an additional non-collected specimen of B. hyoprora from southwestern Para and southern Amazonas, which is located in northern Brazil (Fig. 1). An adult male of B. hyoprora (MPEG 24662, snout-vent length 366 mm, tail length 82 mm) was collected on 2 April 2011 by L. Drummond, H. Costa, and J. Tonini, in an ombrophilous dense forest located in Jardim do Ouro, eastern part of the Itaituba municipality, state of Para, Brazil (6.26190°S, 55.90621°W; WGS 84; 237 m). The specimen is deposited in the herpetological collection “Oswaldo Rodrigues da Cunha,” Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, Brazil - MPEG. An adult male (INPA-H 33106, snout-vent length 347 mm, tail length 63 mm; Fig. 2) was collected on 24 April 2013 by Alexandre Almeida and F. Assungao, in a dense forest in the Floresta Estadual Canutama, a Conservation Unit on Canutama municipality, southern Amazonas, on the right bank of the Paisse River (6.49514°S, 64.56611°W; WGS 84; 75 m). This specimen is deposited in the herpetological section of the Zoological Collections of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Manaus, Brazil - INPA-H. An adult B. hyoprora (UF 157255; Fig. 3) was found on 18 April 2016 by Ivanei Araujo and Edson Reis in a preserved forest transect in the of the Chapleau mining company, concession (7.550479°S, 55.034344; WGS 84; 238 m), Altamira municipality, Para state, Brazil. This record corresponds to a photographic voucher specimen deposited at the Florida Museum of Natural History-UF. The register represented by the MPEG specimen extends the known distribution of Bothrocophias hyoprora ca. 190 km south from the last known record, which was at FLONA Trairao, Para. The University of Co rres pon den CO. 1 lucorallus09@gmail. com, 2 araujois@yahoo. com. hr, 2 prudente@museu-goeldi. hr, 4 r. defraga@gmail. com, 5 alexandre. dealmeida@hotmail. com, 6 emurinus@hotmail. com (corresponding author) Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 1 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 50 Oliveira et al. - 70 ° 0 ' - 60 ° 0 ' Fig. 1. Known geographic range of Bothmcophias hyoprora in South America: white circles = literature data, red star = type locality, red squares = records from Jardim do Ouro, Itaituba, Para, Brazil (MPEG 24662) and from Floresta Estadual Canutama, Canutama, Amazonas, Brazil (INPA-H 33106), red triangle = record from Chapleau mining company concession, Altamira, Para, Brazil (UF 157255). Fig. 3. Adult Bothmcophias hyoprora (UF 157255) from Altamira, Para, Brazil. Photography by Ivanei S. Araujo. Fig. 2. Adult Bothmcophias hyoprora (INPA-FI 33106) from Canutama, Amazonas, Brazil. Photography by Vimcius T. de Carvalho. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 2 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e150 New distributional records of Bothrocophias hyoprora Florida photographed specimen expands the distribution ca. 270 km southeast (Mendes-Pinto and Souza 2011). Both records fill a distributional gap in the Xingu- Tapajos interfluve, located in southeast Para. The INPA specimen fills an important gap on southern Amazonas, at the Jurua-Purus interfluve, one of the most unexplored region of Amazonia concerning the herpetofauna. These records provide new distribution data about this rare species in the Brazilian Amazon. The UF record is the first for the municipality of Altamira. Despite being considered abundant at the Andean slopes of Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, Bothrocophias hyoprora records are very uncommon in Brazil, with few specimens being registered for central and western Amazon. However, the lack of registers is most likely due to scarcity of field work rather than low demographic of the species in the region (Carvalho et al. 2013). Acknowledgements. —We thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq) and the Fundagao Amazonia de Amparo a Estudos e Pesquisas (FAPESPA) for financial support to A C.A. (process 134389/2011-5 and 440413/2015- 0), and A.L.C.P. (CNPq processes Pq 305475/2014- 2, CNPq-PROTAX 440413/2015-0 and FAPESPA- PROTAX 2016/111449). We also thank Murilo Pastana for the English review, and Francisco Dal Vechio for the confirmation of identification of the photograph from Altamira’s specimen. Literature Cited Amaral A. 1923. New genera and species of snakes. Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club 8: 85-105. Amaral A. 1935. Novas especies de ophidios da Colombia. Estudos Sobre Ophidios Neotropicos. Memdrias do Institnto Butantan 9: 222-225. Bernarde PS, Amaral ES, Vale MAD. 2011. Squamata, Serpentes, Viperidae, Bothrocophias hyoprora (Amaral, 1935): Distribution extension in the state of Acre, northern Brazil. Check List 6: 813-814. Campbell JA, Lamar WW. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 870 p. Carrasco PA, Mattoni Cl, Leynaud GC, Scrocchi GJ. 2012. Morphology, phylogeny and taxonomy of South American bothropoid pitvipers (Serpentes, Viperidae). Zoologic a Script a 41: 1-15. Carvalho VT, Fraga R, Eler ES, Kawashita-Ribeiro RA, Feldberg E, Vogt R, Carvalho MA, Noronha JC, Condrati LH, Bittencourt S. 2013. Toad-headed pitviper Bothrocophias hyoprora (Amaral, 1935) (Serpentes, Viperidae): New records of geographic range in Brazil, hemipenial morphology, and chromosomal characterization. Herpetological Review 44(3): 410—414. Cisneros-Heredia DF, Borja MO, Proano D, Jean- Marc T. 2006. Distribution and natural history of the Ecuadorian toad-headed pitvipers of the genus Bothrocophias (Squamata: Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotaline). Herpetozoa 19: 17-22. Cope ED. 1875. Report on the reptiles brought by professor James Orton from the middle and upper Amazon and western Peru. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences ofPhiladelphia N.S. 8: 159-183. Fenwick AM, Gutberlet-Jr RL, Evans JA, Parkinson CL. 2009. Morphological and molecular phylogeny and classification of South American pitvipers, genera Bothrops , Bothriopsis , and Bothrocophias (Serpentes: Viperidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 156: 617-640. Freire-Lascano A. 1991. Dos nuevas especies de Bothrops en el Ecuador. Publicaciones Trabajos Cientificos del Ecuador, Universidad Tecnica de Machala2\ 1-11. Gutberlet-Jr RL, Campbell JA. 2001. Generic recognition for a neglected lineage of South American pitvipers (Squamata: Viperidae: Crotalinae), with the description of a new species from the Colombian Choco. American Museum Novitates 3316: 1-15. Martins M, Oliveira ME. 1998. Natural history of snakes in forests of the Manaus region, Central Amazonia, Brazil. Herpetological Natural History 6 \ 78-150. Martins M, Marques OA, Sazima I. 2002. Ecological and phylogenetic correlates of feeding habits in Neotropical pitvipers of the genus Bothrops. Pp. 307-328 In: Biology of the Vipers. Editors, Schuett GW, Hoggren M, Douglas ME, Greene HW. Utah, Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah, USA. 580 p. Mendes-Pinto TJ, Souza SM. 2011. Preliminary assessment of amphibians and reptiles from Floresta Nacional do Trairao, with a new snake record for the Para state, Brazilian Amazon. Salamandra 47: 199-206. Rendahl H, Vestergren G. 1941. Notes on Colombian snakes. Arkiv for Zoologi 33A: 1-16. Wallach V, Williams KL, Boundy J. 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. 1,237 p. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 3 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 50 Oliveira et al. |' ^ i it Luciana Silva de Oliveira received her Master’s degree in zoology in 2014 from the Federal University of Para and the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para (MPEG), and now works with inventories \ r M of Amazonian herpetofauna. Eler research interests include monitoring wildlife in the Amazon, systematics and genetics of amphibians and reptiles, and techniques and procedures of natural history Ivanei Souza Araujo received his Master’s degree in 2006 from the Federal University of Para and the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para (MPEG), and works as a biodiversity and conservation consultant of Amazonian insects and mammals. His current research is focused on monitoring wildlife for biological conservation, as well as army ants, dung beetles, and butterflies, as a research associate of the MPEG. Ana Lucia da Costa Prudente is a titular researcher at the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para, Brazil (MPEG), and is a teacher and advisor in the postgraduation programs of zoology (in a covenant with the Federal University of Para) and of Biodiverstiy and Evolution (from Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para). She is current chief of the zoology coordination from MPEG, current vice coordinator of research and postgraduation at the MPEG, and curator of the herpetological collection from MPEG since 2000. Her current research focuses on the systematics, taxonomy, and biogeography (mainly with snakes) of animals, Amazon basin, and morphology of reptiles. Rafael de Fraga is a professor at the Federal University of the West of Para (UFOPA - ICTA). He received a Master’s degree in ecology in 2009, and a doctoral degree in 2016 in ecology from the National Institute of Amazonian Researches (INPA). His current research focuses on ecology with an emphasis in herpetology, acting mainly on metrics estimates of diversity (e.g., taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic), niche theory, and theory of ecological gradients. Alexandre Pinheiro de Almeida received his Master’s degree in 2011 from the Federal University of Amazonas, and now works with inventories of Amazon Herpetofauna. His research interests include monitoring wildlife in the Amazon, ecology and taxonomic aspects of amphibians and reptiles, and wildlife management. Alexandre Cordeiro Ascenso is a doctoral research fellow at the Biodiversity and Evolution Program at the Emilio Goeldi Museum of Para, Brazil (MPEG). His current research focuses on the systematics and taxonomy of a species complex of neotropical snakes (Erythrolamprus reginae ), with strong interests in the study of natural history, genetics, biogeography, and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 4 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e150 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 5-14 (el51). On the occurrence of Hemiphractus scutatus (Spix, 1824) (Anura: Hemiphractidae) in eastern Amazonia 1 ’ 2 ’ 3 Leandro Joao Carneiro de Lima Moraes and 24 Dante Pavan l Programa de Capacitaqao Institutional, lnstituto National de Pesquisas da Amazonia - INPA, Manaus, AM, BRAZIL 2 Ecosfera Consultoria e Pesquisa em Meio Ambiente Ltda., Sao Paulo, SP, BRAZIL Abstract.—Hemiphractus Wagler, 1828 is part of Hemiphractidae Peters, 1862, a family that harbors species of frogs characterized by the deposition of eggs on the females’ dorsum. Both the genus Hemiphractus and the species Hemiphractus scutatus (Spix, 1824) are only known to the Andean mountain range and western half of the upper Amazon Basin. Herein, we provide the first records of H. scutatus from the eastern Amazonia (middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil), which extends its geographic range ca. 1,000 km from nearest known occurrence record and are among the lowest known levels for the species elevational range. Comparisons of morphologic and molecular data with available voucher specimens and published information on the species revealed variation that we interpret as intraspecific polymorphism. Phylogenetic analysis of a fragment of the mitochondrial gene 16S recovered the newly discovered specimens as most closely related to samples from Peru. These results add new evidence in the known biogeographic patterns of the genus and species, and ongoing plans to build hydroelectric plants in the middle Tapajos River region can negatively affect this unique population. Keywords. Biogeography, conservation, geographic range, marsupial frogs, morphology, Para State, phylogenetic relationships Citation: Moraes LJCDL, Pavan D. 2018. On the occurrence of Hemiphractus scutatus (Spix, 1824) (Anura: Hemiphractidae) in eastern Amazonia. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 5-14 (el51). Copyright: © 2018 Moraes and Pavan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation ; official journal website . Received: 02 August 2017; Accepted: 28 September 2017; Published: 30 January 2018 Introduction According to the latest phylogenetic revisions (Castro- viejo-Fisher et al. 2015; Duellman 2015), the family Hemiphractidae Peters, 1862 is considered monophy- letic and include the genera Cryptobatrachus Ruthven, 1916 (six species), Gastrotheca Fitzinger, 1843 (70 spe¬ cies), Stefania Rivero, 1968 (19 species), Flectonotus Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926 (two species), Fritziana Mello- Leitao, 1937 (five species), and Hemiphractus (six spe¬ cies). Members of this family inhabit humid Neotropi¬ cal forests in different elevational zones: Central Amer¬ ica, Choco, Andes, mountainous Caribbean coast, the island of Trinidad and Tobago, Amazonia, and the Atlan¬ tic Forest (Castroviejo-Fisher et al. 2015; Duellman 2015). These frogs share a unique reproductive mech¬ anism, with deposition of eggs on the females’ dorsum (Duellman 2015). In Amazonia, this characteristic seems to be relevant to define hemiphractid geographic ranges, as they are more diverse and abundant in the west, which may be a result of ideal climatic conditions for its life cycle in this region (Bernal and Lynch 2013; Duellman 2015), such as the lower seasonality and higher annual rainfall (Sombroek 2001). The species of the genus Hemiphractus are terrestrial and arboreal frogs with well-modified and ornamented skulls (Trueb 1974), which are distributed throughout Central America, East of Andes and in the extreme west¬ ern Amazon basin (Frost 2017): H. bnbahis (Jimenez la Espada, 1870), H.fasciatus Peters, 1862, H. helioi Sheil, and Mendelson III, 2001, H. johnsoni (Noble, 1917), H. proboscideus (Jimenez de la Espada, 1870), and H. scu¬ tatus (Spix, 1824). The latter is the type species of the genus and inhabits a wide elevational range along the western Amazon Basin and Andean mountain range, in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil (Spix 1824; Myers and Carvalho 1945; Trueb 1974; Duellman and Lynch 1988; Rodriguez and Duellman 1994; Ruiz-Carranza et al. 1996; Sheil and Mendelson III 2001; Lehr 2001; Moravec et al. 2002; Coloma et al. 2004; Duellman 2005; Correspondence, 2 leandro.jclm(a),gmail.com (corresponding author); 4 dtpavan@yahoo.com.br Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 5 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Moraes and Pavan Colombia Brazil Tapajos Bolivia Jamanxim< W80° W60° I W70° W60° W50° W40° W80° South America Peru Fig. 1. Known distribution of (a) genus Hemiphractus (in purple) and (b) Hemiphractus scutatus (dots), highlighting new locality of occurrence in middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil (red dots) and localities of sequences included in molecular analysis (yellow dots). The region of new records is zoomed in (c), showing the sampling sites where H. scutatus was present (red) and not recorded (white). Lynch 2005; Cisneros-Heredia 2006; Glaw and Franzen 2006; Munoz-Saravia 2008; Souza 2009; von May et al. 2009; Beirne and Whitworth 2011; Bernarde et al. 2011; Catenazzi et al. 2013; Ortiz 2013; Almendariz etal. 2014; Castroviejo-Fisher et al. 2015; Frost 2017; GBIF 2017; Rainforest Conservation Fund 2017; SpeciesLink 2017). Herein we present the first records of Hemiphrac¬ tus scutatus from the middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil. These records are the easternmost known localities of occurrence reported for this species and the genus, and are among the lowest known elevational lev¬ els for the species distribution. We also present a phylo¬ genetic tree based on mtDNA gene 16S for some Hemi¬ phractus species, and discuss on the biogeographic implications of these records and conservation of this population. Material and Methods The amphibian survey was conducted on the middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil. This river is one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon River (Sioli 1968) and is located in eastern Amazonia. The climate in this region have a high seasonality (Sombroek 2001), with average annual temperature of 26 °C and total annual rainfall exceeding 2,400 mm (Wang et al. 2017), with driest months from June to August (Alvares et al. 2013). We survey for amphibians in 11 sampling sites with four km long, installed in both banks of the Tapajos River and its tributary the Jamanxim River. Each sampling site cov¬ ered humid primary Terra Firme forests, which does not suffer the seasonal riverine flood pulse effect (Junk et al. 1989) and riparian forests (Fig. 1). We used complemen¬ tary sampling methods (Heyer et al. 1994), such as pitfall traps (600 trap nights) and diurnal and nocturnal active searches (more than 340 days). Six field campaigns were conducted along July 2012 and November 2013. Aiming to better understand the relevance of these records in the general context of the geographic and ele¬ vational distribution of the species, we survey for its occurrence data available in the literature (Spix 1824; Myers and Carvalho 1945; Trueb 1974; Duellman and Lynch 1988; Rodriguez and Duellman 1994; Ruiz-Car- ranza et al. 1996; Sheil and Mendelson III 2001; Lehr 2001; Moravec et al. 2002; Coloma et al. 2004; Duellman 2005; Lynch 2005; Cisneros-Heredia 2006; Glaw and Franzen 2006; Munoz-Saravia 2008; Souza 2009; von May et al. 2009; Beirne and Whitworth 2011; Bernarde et al. 2011; Catenazzi et al. 2013; Almendariz et al. 2014; Castroviejo-Fisher et al. 2015; Frost 2017; Rainforest Conservation Fund 2017; AP Lima, pers. comm.) and online databases (Ortiz 2013; GBIF 2017; SpeciesLink 2017), mostly with associated vouchers in zoological collections, obtaining a total of 77 georeferenced locali¬ ties of occurrence. Morphologic data survey We analyzed morphologic data traditionally used in the taxonomy of the genus (Trueb 1974), obtaining qualita¬ tive characters of external morphology and quantitative characters using a caliper to the nearest 0.1 mm: snout- vent length (SVL); forearm length from proximal edge of palmar tubercle to outer edge of flexed elbow (FAL); hand length from proximal edge of palmar tubercle to tip of finger III (HA); tibia length from proximal edge of Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 6 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Occurrence of Hemiphractus scutatus in eastern Amazonia Fig. 2. Specimens of Hemiphractus scutatus from middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil, (a) Female, 76.1 mm SVL, INPA-H38116; (b) Male, 57.8 mm SVL, INPA-H38117; (c) Female, 61.7 mm SVL, 1NPA-H38118. flexed knee to heel (TL); foot length from proximal edge of inner metatarsal tubercle to tip of Toe IV (FL); head width at level of angle of jaw (HW); head length from angle of jaw to tip of snout (HL); eye diameter (ED); internarial distance (IN); diameter of tympanum (DT); interorbital distance (10) and thigh length (THL). We compared the measurements with information available from the literature and voucher specimens deposited at the Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles (INPA-H) of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (Appendix SI), where the new specimens were also deposited (under accession numbers INPA-H 38116-38118). Molecular data protocols We extracted the genomic DNA from two specimens liver tissue samples conserved in absolute ethanol using the phenol-chloroform protocol (Sambrook and Rus¬ sel 2001). The 16S mtDNA gene, a standard marker for amphibians (Vences et al. 2012), was amplified via the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The PCR amplifica¬ tion used a mix with final volume of 25 pi: 4 pi of 1.25 M dNTPs, 2.5 pi of 10X amplification buffer (75mM Tris HC1, 50 mM KC1, 20 mM (NH 4 ),S0 4 ), 1.0 pi of 50 mM MgCl 2 , 1.0 pi of DNA in a concentration of 250 ng/pl, 0.25 pi of each primer (/ASar and /ASbr - Palumbi et al. 1991) in a concentration of 200 ng/ul, 0.25 pi of Taq DNA polymerase 5 U/pL and 15.75 pL of ddH,0. Reac¬ tion conditions had an initial heating step at 94 °C for five minutes, 30 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, primer annealing at 50 °C for 60 s, and extension at 72 °C for 120 s, followed by a final extension at 72 °C for seven minutes. PCR products were purified with ExoSAP-IT (USB Corporation) and submitted to a sequencing reac¬ tion following BigDye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems, EUA) protocols. The sequences were obtained in the automated sequencer ABI PRISM 3500 (Applied Biosystems, EUA) and deposited in Gen- Bank (accession numbers MG011478, MG011479). The sequences were aligned using the MUSCLE algo¬ rithm, implemented in MEGA 6.06 (Tamura et al. 2013) and corrected manually, obtaining a 524 bp alignment. Using the same software, we generated a maximum like¬ lihood phylogenetic tree, constructed through a general time reversible model with a gamma distribution of rate variation (GTR+G), selected as the best DNA evolution model for the alignment by Bayesian Information Cri¬ terion (BIC), as well as to calculate two inter and intra¬ specific genetic distances: uncorrected-pairwise and Kimura-2-Parameter (K2P) (Kimura 1980). Additional sequences were obtained in GenBank, including the two distinct lineages of H. scutatus identified by Castroviejo- Fisher et al. (2015) (Table 3). The statistical support for the tree nodes was estimated by bootstrapping (5,000 replicates). Results New records of Hemiphractus scutatus We found three specimens of H. scutatus in two of the 11 sampling sites (Figs. 1-3). It was a rare species in the sampling, recorded at a ratio of one specimen in about each 300 days of sampling, while the most abundant syntopic terrestrial frogs were from genera Adenomera Steindachner, 1867, Pristimantis Jimenez de la Espada, 1870, Allobates Zimmermann and Zimmermann, 1988, and Rhinella Fitzinger, 1826, with 2,700 specimens recorded in this same sampling effort. The three spec¬ imens of H. scutatus were only recorded by the active searches, and exclusively in Terra Firme forests (Fig. 4). On 28 September 2012 one female voucher speci¬ men was collected by D. Pavan close to a large tree and under a palm leaf, on the left bank of Tapajos River, at 19:15 h (76.1 mm SVL; 05°02’S, 56°53’W, 62 m above mean sea level, hereafter referred as asl). On 16 Octo¬ ber 2012 a male voucher specimen was collected on the same riverbank by LJCL Moraes hidden inside the leaf- litter at 21:05 h, distant ca. 51 km in straight line from the first record (57.8 mm SVL; 04°39’S, 56°37’W, 60 m asl). On 28 April 2013 a second female voucher spec¬ imen was collected also hidden inside the leaf-litter on the same riverbank by J. Cassimiro at 21:30 h (61.7 mm SVL; 04°40’S, 56°37’W, 83 m asl), distant ca. 50 km in straight line from the first record and 430 m from the sec¬ ond record. No evidence of reproductive activity or gap¬ ing posture (Trueb 1974) was observed. These three records represent the easternmost known localities of occurrence of H. scutatus , extending the geo- Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 7 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Moraes and Pavan Fig. 3. Dorsal and ventral views of voucher specimens of Hemiphractus scutatus from middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil, (a) Female, 76.1 mm SVL, INPA-H38116; (b) Male, 57.8 mm SVL, INPA-H38117. Scale bar = 20 mm. graphic range of the species and the genus Hemiphractus. They are distant ca. 1,000-1,500 km from the previously known easternmost points of the species occurrence, in Ronddnia (INPA-H 15398, 15399) and Amazonas States, Brazil (GBIF 2017; SpeciesLink 2017) (Fig. 1). Considering only the Amazon Basin at South of Ama¬ zon River, these new records even extend to the East the geographic range of the family Hemiphractidae. Further¬ more, the elevation level in which these specimens were recorded are among the lowest known elevation for the species (60, 62, and 83 m asl; Fig. 5), and two of them (60 and 62 m asl) also extend downwards the known ele- vational range of this species, since there are no docu¬ mented records of individuals below 70 m asl. Morphologic variation and molecular relation¬ ships The morphologic data confirms the identification of our specimens in accordance to the literature (Trueb 1974) and voucher specimens. Qualitative characters include the triangular head, canthus rostralis rounded in sec¬ tion; tympanum large and vertically ovoid; oblique rows of tubercles on dorsal surfaces of forearm and hind limb (less pronounced in female specimens); small triangu¬ lar fleshy proboscis, dorsoventrally flattened, on tip of snout; eyelids granular with one (female specimens) or three (male specimen) prominent fleshy conical tuber¬ cles; single bony projection at the angle of the jaw; slightly enlarged tubercles at the knee and small tuber¬ cles at calcaneum (divergent from the absence of calcar projections reported by Trueb 1974 and Rodriguez and Duellman 1994); fingers and toes with vestigial adhe¬ sive discs, well-developed round subarticular tubercles and basal webbing; thenar tubercle elliptical and outer palmar tubercle diffuse, flat and cordiform; no evidence of nuptial pads in male specimen; toes also with well- developed round subarticular tubercles and about one- fourth webbed; inner metatarsal tubercle well-developed and elliptical, and outer metatarsal tubercle indistinct; shagreened skin on dorsum and granular on flanks, abdo¬ men and ventral surfaces of thighs. Dorsal coloration in life varies from reddish brown (INPA-H38116 and 38118) to pale tan background with dark mottling (INPA-H38117), with two dark vertebral spots; dark suborbital marks from the lower margin of the eye expanding posteroventrally but not reaching the lip (more pronounced in INPA-H38117 than in INPA- H38116 and 38118) and scattered dark spots in the tym¬ panic region. Ventrally, gular coloration varies from uni¬ formly brown (INPA-H38116 and 38118) to mottled (INPA-H38117), with a pale mid-ventral stripe reach- Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 8 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Occurrence of Hemiphractus scutatus in eastern Amazonia Fig. 4. Aerial (a) and inside (b) view of the Hemiphractus scutatus habitat (Terra Firme forest) in middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil, also showing the BR-230 highway. ing the pectoral region; same gular color reaches the pec¬ toral region, and becomes less pigmented posteriorly. A finely dark venate pattern covers the flank areas above the forelimb; forelimbs and hind limbs varies from uni¬ formly brown (INPA-H38116 and 38118) to tan (INPA- H38117), with dark transverse bands, reaching the dor¬ sal surface of hands (more evident in INPA-H38117); iris bronze and darker ventrally, with a longitudinally cross¬ ing reddish area and pupil horizontal. Regarding quanti¬ tative characters, most of the measurements of the middle Tapajos River specimens agree with the known morpho¬ metric range of the species (Table 1), also showing the sexual dimorphism in body size. The only divergence is a small HW compared to SVL in female INPA-H38116. The 16S mtDNA tree for Hemiphractus species shows, as the results presented by Castroviejo-Fisher et al. (2015), two distinct lineages of H. scutatus. The middle Tapajos River population is more related to the lineage from Peru (Figs. 6, 7), as the sequences have a higher genetic similarity (more than 97%) compared to sequence from Colombia, near the country’s border with Brazil (93%) (Fig. 7). Discussion The presence of possible cryptic taxa under the name H. scutatus was suggested based on the results of a phylogeny 3 , 200 - 3,400 3 , 000 - 3,200 2 , 800 - 3,000 ~ 2 , 600 - 2,800 fasciatus FJ784476 fasciatus KC 129337 fasciatus KC129336 Stefania riae JQ742172 Stefania evansi AY843767 0.03 Fig. 6. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Hemiphractus species based in a fragment of the 16S mtDNA gene, with GenBank accession numbers. Only bootstrap values >80% are shown (5,000 replicates). For Hemiphractus scutatus , sample localities are in parentheses and specimens from middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil are highlighted. ent (Siqueira and Rocha 2013) and the H. scutatus may be a target taxon for future studies testing this gradient. Conservation Hemiphractus scutatus is considered as “Least Con¬ cern” by IUCN due to its wide distribution and presum¬ ably large and stable populations (Coloma et al. 2004). However, this species is rarely recorded and have poorly known population dynamics to define its conservation status, that can even vary along its wide geographic and elevational range. As the Amazon region has suf¬ fered increasing anthropic impact through the advance of cities and highways, forests fragmentation and habitat loss (Feamside 2015), the H. scutatus may have declin¬ ing populations in most of its distribution, since they are dependents of undisturbed forests (Rodriguez and Duellman 1994). The specimens of H. scutatus from middle Tapajos River region may represent a unique population, recorded near and within a federal conservation unit (Parque Nacional da Amazonia), same pattern already described for Peruvian populations (von May et al. 2009), reinforc¬ ing the need to maintain large protected forest areas in the Amazonia and adequate land-use on the unprotected (Laurance et al. 2001). In addition to these threats, the biome has been target of dam construction in its larger rivers (Latrubesse et al. 2017), which can negatively affect the biodiversity of the surrounding forests (Moraes et al. 2016). The population of H. scutatus from Tapa¬ jos River is in the region affected by the construction of a large hydroelectric plant, part of a complex planned for the basin (Fearnside 2015), thus the implementation of this project may affect the viability of this population. Conclusion The discovery of the first specimens of H. scutatus from eastern Amazonia sheds new insights into ecology, bio¬ geography, taxonomy, and conservation of these remark¬ able frogs. To better understand the population status and the total distribution range of this taxon in Amazo¬ nia, we need more long-term field studies, with standard¬ ized protocols, complementary sampling and broader approaches. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 11 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Moraes and Pavan 0.14 S' (0 +! 0.12 ra CD £.0.10 CD CD E 0.08 ns W ^ 0.06 I a o = 0.04 CD C CD OS 0.02 0 Hsc/Hbu Hsc/Hpr Hsc/Hfa Hsc/Hhe Col/Per Col/Tap Per/Tap Tap/Tap comparisons Fig. 7. Inter and intraspecific genetic distances (mean ± standard deviation of pairwise and K2P distances) calculated for a fragment of I6S mtDNA gene of Hemiphractus species and populations. (Hsc) Hemiphractus scut at us; (Hpr) Hemiphractus proboscideus (Hfa) Hemiphractus fasciatus; (Hhe) Hemiphractus heJioi; (Col) Colombia; (Per) Peru; (Tap) middle Tapajos River region, Para State, Brazil. GenBank accession numbers of sequences are in Table 2. Acknowledgements. —We thank MC Barros and members of GENBIMOL Molecular Biology Labora¬ tory of the Universidade Estadual do Maranhao - campus Caxias (UEMA) for assistance with the molecular data survey; LF Storti, J Cassimiro, JO Gomes, M Hoffman, TFD Rodrigues, JMB Ghelere, AB Barros, and ES Brito, for help in sampling; CNEC WorleyParsons Engenharia S.A., for financial and logistical support and FP Wer- neck, AAA Silva, and R Vogt, for allowing the specimens examination at the herpetological collection of INPA. The individuals were collected under permit 066/2012 provided by Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renovaveis (IBAMA). The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq, Brazil) provided a scholarship to LJCL Moraes. Literature Cited Almendariz A, Simmons JE, Vaca-Guerrero J, Brito J. 2014. Overview of the herpetofauna of the unex¬ plored Cordillera del Condor of Ecuador. Amphib¬ ian & Reptile Conservation 8: 45-64 (e82). Alvares CA, Stape JL, Sentelhas PC, Gongalves JLM, Sparovek G. 2013. Koppen’s climate classification map for Brazil. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 22(6): 711-728. Azevedo-Ramos C, Galatti U. 2002. Patterns of amphib¬ ian diversity in Brazilian Amazonia: Conservation implications. Biological Conservation 103(1): 103— 111 . Beirne C, Whitworth A. 2011. Frogs of the Yachana Reserve. Global Vision International, Exeter, United Kingdom. 109 p. Bernal MH, Lynch JD. 2013. Thermal tolerance in anuran embryos with different reproductive modes: Relationship to altitude. The Scientific World Jour¬ nal 2013: 1-7. Bemarde PS, Machado RA, Turci LCB. 2011. Herpe¬ tofauna da area do Igarape Esperanqa na Reserva Extrativista Riozinho da Liberdade, Acre - Brasil. Biota Neotropica 11(3): 117-144. Boubli JP, Ribas CC, Lynch Alfaro J, Silva MNF, Pinho GM, Farias IP. 2015. Spatial and temporal patterns of diversification on the Amazon: A test of the river¬ ine hypothesis for all diurnal primates of Rio Negro and Rio Branco in Brazil. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 82: 400^-12. Catenazzi A, Lehr E, von May R. 2013. The amphibians and reptiles of Manu National Park and its buffer zone, Amazon basin and eastern slopes of the Andes, Peru. Biota Neotropica 13(4): 269-283. Cracraft J. 1985. Historical biogeography and patterns of differentiation within the South American avifauna: Areas of endemism. Ornithological Monographs 36; 49-84. Castroviejo-Fisher S, Padial Jr. JM, Silva HR, Rojas- Runjaic FJM, Medina-Mendez E, Frost DR. 2015. Phylogenetic systematics of egg-brooding frogs (Anura: Hemiphractidae) and the evolution of direct development. Zootaxa 4004: 1-75. Cisneros-Heredia DF. 2006. La Herpetofauna de la Estacion de Biodiversidad Tiputini, Ecuador: Diver- sidad & Ecologia de los Anfibios & Reptiles de una Comunidad Taxonomicamente Diversa. B.Sc. The¬ sis, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador. 129 p. Coloma LA, Ron S, Azevedo-Ramos C. 2004. Hemi¬ phractus scutatus. The IUCN Red List of Threat¬ ened Species 2004: e.T55371A11299534. Duellman WE. 2005. Cusco Amazonico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainfor¬ est. Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell Uni¬ versity Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 488 p. Duellman WE. 2015. Marsupial Frogs. Gastrotheca and Allied Genera. Johns Hopkins University Press, Bal¬ timore, Maryland, USA. 432 p. Duellman WE, Lynch JD. 1988. Anuran amphibians from the Cordillera de Cutucu, Ecuador. Proceed¬ ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadel¬ phia 140(2): 125-142. Fearnside PM. 2015. Amazon dams and waterways: Bra¬ zil’s Tapajos basin plans. Ambio 44(5): 426^139. Frost DR. 2017. Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA. Available: http ://research. amnh. org/herpetology/ amphibia/index.html [Accessed: 03 May 2017], GBIF. 2017. Hemiphractus scutatus (Spix, 1824) spe¬ cies page. Available: http://www.gbif.org/spe- cies/2429986 [Accessed: 03 May 2017], Glaw F, Franzen M. 2006. Type catalogue of amphibians in the Zoologische Staatsammlung Munchen. Spixi- ana 29: 153-192. Heyer WR, Donnelly MA, Mcdiarmid RW, Hayek LC, Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 12 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Occurrence of Hemiphractus scutatus in eastern Amazonia Foster MS. 1994. Measuring and Monitoring Bio¬ logical Diversity: Standard Methods for Amphibi¬ ans. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, USA. 384 p. Junk WJ, Bayley PB, Sparks RE. 1989. The flood pulse concept in river-floodplain systems. Canadian Spe¬ cial Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106: 110-127. Kimura MA. 1980. A simple method for estimating evo¬ lutionary rates of base substitutions through com¬ parative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution 16(2): 111-120. Latrubesse EM, Arima EY, Dunne T, Park E, Baker VR, d’Horta FM, Wight C, Wittmann F, Zuanon J, Baker PA, Ribas CC, Norgaard RB, Filizola N, Ansar A, Flyvbjerg B, Stevaux JC. 2017. Damming the rivers of the Amazon basin. Nature 546: 363-369. Laurance WF, Cochrane MA, Bergen S, Fearnside PM, Delamonica P, Barber C, D’Angelo S, Fernandes T. 2001. The future of the Brazilian Amazon. Science 29E 438-439. Lehr E. 200E New records for amphibians and reptiles from Departamentos Pasco and Ucayali, Peru. Her- petological Review 32: 130-132. Lynch JD. 2005. Discovery of the richest frog fauna in the world—an exploration of the forests to the north of Leticia. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias 29(113): 581-588. Morrison C, Hero JM. 2003. Geographic variation in life-history characteristics of amphibians: A review. Journal of Animal Ecology 72: 270-279. Moraes LJCL, Pavan D, Barros MC, Ribas CC. 2016. The combined influence of riverine barriers and flooding gradients on biogeographical patterns for amphibians and squamates in south-eastern Amazo¬ nia. Journal of Biogeography 43(11): 2,113-2,124. Moravec J, Tuanama IA, Burgos AM. 2002. Amphibians recently recorded from the surroundings of Iquitos (Departamento Loreto, Peru). I. Hylidae. Casopis Narodmho Rada, pfirodovedna 171: 29-44. Munoz-Saravia A. 2008. Geographic distribution: Hemi¬ phractus scutatus. Herpetofogicaf Review 39: 233. Myers GS, Carvalho AL. 1945. Notes on some new or lit¬ tle-known Brazilian amphibians, with an examina¬ tion of the history of the Plata salamander, Ensatina platensis. Boletim do Museu Nacional, Nova Serie, Zoologia 35: 1-24. Ortiz DA. 2013. Hemiphractus scutatus. In: Amphibi- aWebEcuador. Version 2016.0. Editors, Ron SR, Guayasamin JM, Yanez-Munoz MH, Merino-Vit- eri A, Ortiz DA, Nicolalde DA. 2016. Museo de Zoologia, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecua¬ dor, Ecudaor. Available: http://zoologia.puce.edu. ec/ vertebrado s/anfibios/F ichaE specie. aspx? Id=12 7 5 [Accessed: 03 May 2017], Rainforest Conservation Fund. 2017. Species Data Sheets, Reptiles & Amphibians, Hemiphractus scu¬ tatus. Available: http://www.rainforestconservation. org/species-data-sheets/frogs/hemiphractus-scutatus [Accessed: 03 May 2017], Rodriguez LO, Duellman WE. 1994. Guide to the Frogs of the Iquitos Region, Amazonian Peru. Peruvian Field Guides Series No Sp 22 (Book 22). Asociacion de Ecologia y Conservacion, Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research and Natural History Museum, The University of Kansas, Law¬ rence, Kansas, USA. 89 p. Ruiz-Carranza PM., Ardila-Robayo MA, Lynch JD. 1996. Lista actualizada de la fauna de Amphibia de Colombia. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales 20: 77,365- 77,415. Sambrook JD, Russel W. 2001. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. 3 rd edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA. 999 p. Sioli H. 1968. Hydrochemistry and geology in the Bra¬ zilian Amazon region. Amazoniana 1: 267-277. Siqueira CC, Rocha CFD. 2013. Altitudinal gradients: concepts and implications on the biology, the distri¬ bution and conservation of Anurans. Oecologia Aus- tralisYl : 282-302 Sombroek W. 2001. Spatial and temporal patterns of Amazon rainfall - Consequences for the planning of agricultural occupation and the protection of pri¬ mary forests. Ambio 30: 388-396. Souza MB. 2009. Anfibios: Reserva Extrativista do Alto Junta e Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor, Acre. IFCH, Campinas, Brazil. 76 p. SpeciesLink. 2017. SpeciesLink. Centro de Referencia em Informagao Ambiental, CRIA. Available: http:// splink.cria.org.br [Accessed: 03 May 2017], Spix JBV. 1824. Animalia nova sive Species novae Tes- tudinum et Ranarum quas in itinere per Brasiliam annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX jussu et auspiciis Maximiliani Josephi I. Bavariae Regis. F.S. Hiib- schmann, Munchen, Germany. 29 p. Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S. 2013. MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 6.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30: 2,725-2,729. Trueb L. 1974. Systematic relationships of Neotropical horned frogs, genus Hemiphractus (Anura: Hyli¬ dae). Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, the University of Kansas 29: 1-60. Vences M, Nagy ZT, Sonet G, Verheyen E. 2012. DNA barcoding amphibians and reptiles. Pp. 79-107 In: DNA Barcodes: Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Series. Editors, Kress WJ, Erick¬ son DL. Humana Press, Inc., New York, New York, USA. 470 p. von May R, Siu-Ting K, Jacob JM, Muller MM, Gagliardi G, Rodriguez LO, Donnelly MA. 2009. Species diversity and conservation status of amphibians in Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 13 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Moraes and Pavan Madre de Dios, southern Peru. Herpetological Con¬ servation and Biology 4(1): 14-29. Wang X, Edwards LR, Auler AS, Cheng H, Kong X, Wang Y, Cruz FW, Dorale JA, Chiang HW. 2017. Hydroclimate changes across the Amazon lowlands over the past 45,000 years. Nature 541: 204-207. Appendix SI. Specimens examined. Hemiphractus scutatus (n = 5): BRAZIL: Rondonia: Abuna esquerda, Porto Velho (65°20’S 09 o 3LW), INPA-H15398, Jirau esquerda, Porto Velho, 1NPA-H15399 (64°44’S 09°20’W); Para: Left bank of middle Tapajos River, Itaituba (05°02’S 56°53’W), 1NPA-H38116, Left bank of middle Tapajos River, Itaituba (04°39’S 56°37’W), INPA-H38117. Left bank of middle Tapajos River, Itaituba (04°40’S 56°37’W), 1NPA-H38118. 1NPA-H = Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles of the Institute Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Manaus, AM, Brazil. Leandro J.C.L. Moraes has a B.S. in biology from the Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos (campus Sorocaba, Brazil) and a Master’s degree in ecology at Institute Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia- INPA, Manaus, AM, Brazil. Currently he is a researcher at the same institution. His research fields include diversity, taxonomy, biogeography, evolution, and conservation of Neotropical amphibians and reptiles. Dante Pavan has a B. S. in biology from the Universidade de Sao Paulo - USP, Sao Paulo, Brazil and a Master’s and Doctoral degrees in zoology at the same institution. He works mainly with environmental impact studies, analyzing and predicting the anthropic impacts on amphibians and reptiles from diverse Brazilian biomes. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 14 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e151 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 15-17 (el52). Sighting of the Himalayan Trinket Snake, Orthriophis hodgsonii Gunther (1860) (Reptilia: Colubr dae), in Sahastra Dhara, Uttarakhand: A new elevational record ^bhishek Singh and 2 Ritesh Joshi 1 Endangered Flora and Fauna on Earth Conservation Team, Vasant Vihar, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, INDIA 2 Conservation & Survey Division, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, New Delhi, INDIA Abstract .—In 2016, two individuals of Orthriophis hodgsonii (Himalayan Trinket Snake) were observed from the Sahastra Dhara area, Uttarakhand, India, confirming the occurrence of this species in the Garhwal region. This report provides the lowest elevational record (835 m) of Orthriophis hodgsonii from its previously known distribution range (1,000-3,200 m). Keywords. Geographic distribution, north India, Garhwal region, range extension, Sauria, conservation Citation: Singh A, and Joshi R. 2018. Sighting of the Himalayan Trinket Snake, Orthriophis hodgsonii Gunther (1860) (Reptilia: Colubridae), in Sahastra Dhara, Uttarakhand: A new elevational record. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 15-17 (e152). Copyright: ©2018 Singh and Joshi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation ; official journal website . Received: 06 September 2016; Accepted: 21 December 2016; Published: 31 January 2018 Of the four species in the genus Orthriophis found across the world ( Orthriophis mollendorffi, O. taeniurus, O. hodgsonii , and O. cantoris ), three are found in India (O. taeniurus, O. hodgsonii, and O. cantoris ) (Utiger et al. 2002; Whitaker and Captain 2004). The Himalayan Trin¬ ket Snake ( Orthriophis hodgsoni) is native to India, Ne¬ pal, and China (Tibet) (Whitaker and Captain 2004). In India, this species is distributed in Jammu and Kashmir northern Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Northern, West Bengal Sikkim and Meghalaya, ranging from the elevation of 1,000-3,200 m (Smith 1943; Das 2002; Whitaker and Captain 2004; Sharma 2007). On 1 April 2016 (11:10 hours), a Himalayan Trinket Snake (sex unknown) was recorded from a small barren plot, located close to human settlements in the Sahastra Dhara area near Dehradun (30°23'07.4"N, 78°07'40.5"E, 831.4 m; Fig. 1). The spot was near the protected forest of the Mussoorie Forest Division. Some of the plants in this area where the snakes were seen are: Murray a koe- nigii (Curry Tree), Lantana camara (Fantana), Jatropha curcas (Ban Arandi), and Datura stramonium (Jimson Weed). Both snakes (including the one recorded below) were photographed and visually identified based on de¬ scriptions given by Smith (1943), Sharma (2007), and Whitaker and Captain (2004). No scalation data was recorded. Thereafter, on 18 August 2016 (13:20 hours), an individual of unknown sex was observed far from where the first specimen was recorded (30°23'05.5"N, 78°07'44.6"E, 839.4 m; Figs. 2 and 3). Both sightings were during the summer season and near the Sahastra Dhara. Husain and Ray (1995) first recorded this species from Pauri, Chamoli, and Nainital districts of the Uttarakhand State. Thereafter, Whitaker and Captain (2004) recorded this species from Mussoorie, Almora, and Nainital dis¬ tricts of Uttarakhand State, at an elevation ranging from 1,000-3,200 m. Smith (1943), Sharma (2003) and Bahu- guna (2010) also corroborated the presence of the Hima¬ layan Trinket Snake in the State. Vasudevan and Sondhi (2010) had only included the Himalayan Trinket Snake in a checklist of snakes of Uttarakhand but no description and locality records were stated. We herein confirm the occurrence of the Himalayan Trinket Snake in the Uttarakhand State, Garhwal re¬ gion (Sahastra Dhara-a perennial river) and provide the first record of its presence below 1,000 m. The Sahastra Dhara is located in northern India at 29°26'-31°28'N and 77°49'-80°06'E and falls within the Himalaya Biogeo¬ graphic Zone and located in the West Himalaya Province. The largest portion of this area is in the Shivalik’s Bio¬ geographic Subdivision, which constitutes an important repository of reptilian fauna. The Himalayan Trinket Snake has not yet been as¬ sessed by the IUCN Red Fist. Increasing development Correspondence. ' ngoeffect@gmail.com ; 2 riteshJoshi2325@yahoo.com (Corresponding author) Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 15 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 52 Singh and Joshi Fig. 1. Himalayan Trinket Snake, Orthriophis hodgsonii, near Sahastra Dhara. Fig. 2. Close-up of the head of a Himalayan Trinket Snake recorded from Sahastra Dhara. and anthropogenic activities across the riparian corri¬ dors, shrinkage of natural water sources inside protected areas, expansion of the road network across a long chain of protected habitats, and lack of awareness among the local people were some of the observed threats that could potentially lead to population decline of the species. Acknowledgements. —The authors would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers, including Mr. Ashok Captain, a renowned Indian herpetologist and conservationist, who provided valuable input and com¬ ments on the previous versions of the manuscript and contributed significantly to improve the manuscript to its present form. Thanks are due to Mr. Sudhakar Sharma and Mr. Raj Shekhar Singh for assisting us in collecting field data. Literature Cited Bahuguna A. 2010. Reptilia. Pp. 445-503 In: Fauna of Uttarakhand. (Part 1) Vertebrates. State Fauna Se¬ ries 18. Editor, Director, Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata 700 053. Zoologi¬ cal Survey of India, Kolkata, India. 621 p. Available: http:// faunaofindia. nic. in/PDF Volumes/sfs/062/index, pdf [Accessed: 31 January 2018], Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 16 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 52 Himalayan Trinket Snake new elevation record Fig. 3. Himalayan Trinket Snake in its natural habitat in the Sahastra Dhara area. Das I. 2002. A Photographic Guide to the Snakes and Reptiles of India. New Holland Publishers, London, United Kingdom. 144 p. Husain A, Ray P. 1995. Reptilia. Pp. 159-167 In: Fauna of Western Himalaya (Part-2)-Himachal Pradesh. Hi¬ malayan Ecosystem Series (Part I). Editor, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. 359 p. Available: http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PD- FVolumes/ess/021/index.pdf [Accessed: 31 January 2018], Rodgers WA, Panwar HS, Mathur VB. 2002. Wildlife Protected Areas in India: A review. Executive Sum¬ mary. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. 44 P- Sharma RC. 2003. Handbook: Indian Snakes. Editor, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Publisher, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. 292 p. Sharma RC. 2007. The Fauna of India and the Adjacent Countries: Reptilia, Volume 2: Sauria. Editor, Direc¬ tor, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Pub¬ lisher, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. 410 p. Available: http://faunaohndia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/ h/037/index.pdf [Accessed: 31 January 2018], Smith MA. 1943. The Fauna of British India, Ceylon and Burma including the Whole of the Indo-Chinese Sub- region, Reptilia and Amphibia Volume III. Serpents. Taylor and Francis, London, England. 583 p. Utiger U, Helfenberger N, Schatti B, Schmidt C, Ruf M, Ziswiler V. 2002. Molecular systematic and phylog- eny of old and new world ratsnakes, Elaphe AUCT., and related genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 9(2): 105-124. Vasudevan K, Sondhi S. 2010. Amphibians and Reptiles of Uttarakhand, India. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. 94 p. Whitaker R, Captain A. 2004. Snakes of India, The Field Guide. Draco Books, Chennai, India. 481 p. Abhishek Singh graduated from the Subharti University, India in 2009. He is the chairman of the non governmental organization Endangered Flora and Fauna on Earth Conservation Team (EFFECT). His research interests are the ecology and taxonomy of reptiles in northern India, and particularly serpents and threatened species. He is also associated with TRAFFIC India (The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network). The past six years, he has been actively involved in providing training in the identification and rescue of various poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, as well as other wildlife, to the staff of the State Forest Department of Uttarakhand State. Ritesh Joshi is a scientist presently working for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. He has a bachelor, master’s, and doctorate degree in environmental sciences from India universities. Dr. Joshi is actively involved in research on wildlife in protected areas of northern India. His research interest includes ecology and behavior of wildlife, especially mammals and serpents. He has published three books on wildlife and more than 75 research papers in various national and international scientific journals. He has also published nearly 50 scientific articles in scientific magazines on wildlife and conservation of the environment. The Department of Official Fanguages, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has honored Ritesh with the Rajiv Gandhi National Award for his book. Wildlife of Uttarakhand and Conservation. This award was given to him by the Hon’ble President of India in 2015. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 17 January 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 52 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 18-26 (el53). Captive management, reproduction, and comparative larval development of Klappenbach’s Red-bellied Frog, Melanophryniscus klappenbachi Prigioni and Langone, 2000 1 ’ 2 Nils Behrand ^Dennis Rodder 1 Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D - 53113 Bonn, GERMANY Abstract. —In this study, we report on the successful keeping, breeding, and rearing of Klappenbach’s Red- bellied Frog, Melanophryniscus klappenbachi Prigioni and Langone, 2000. Breeding and spawning took place after a relatively dry period without using a brumation period. To initiate mating behavior the toads were introduced into a rain chamber with a raised water level and constant irrigation in accordance with the toad’s natural habitat and heavy rainfalls. The fast developing tadpoles started metamorphosis after 19 days at a constant water temperature of 23 °C and pH values between 6.5 and 7.9. A higher pH value led to slightly faster growth irrespective if tadpoles were reared singly or in groups. Keywords. Amphibians, Anura, captive breeding, conservation breeding, environmental factors, spawning Citation: Behr N, Rodder D. 2018. Captive management, reproduction, and comparative larval development of Klappenbach’s Red-bellied Frog, Melanophryniscus klappenbachi Prigioni and Langone, 2000. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 18-26 (el 53). Copyright: © 2018 Behr and Rodder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal reptile-conservation. org>. Received: 02 January 2017; Accepted: 28 August 2017; Published: 01 Introduction The genus Melanophryniscus Gallardo, 1961 is current¬ ly represented by 29 species which have been reported from southern Bolivia and southern Brazil in the north over Paraguay to Uruguay and northern Argentina in the south. They are commonly referred to as South American Redbelly Toads due to the red or orange flash markings upon their ventral bodies, hands, and feet (Frost 2016). Species of this genus have been divided into three phe¬ notypic species groups based on morphological charac¬ teristics: the Melanophryniscus tumifrons , M. moreirae , and M. stelzneri groups (Cruz and Caramaschi 2003). Klappenbach’s Red-bellied Frog (M klappenbachi Pri¬ gioni and Langone, 2000) is part of the Melanophrynis¬ cus stelzneri group (Cruz and Caramaschi 2003), which currently includes eight more species, i.e., M. atroluteus (Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920), M cupreuscapularis (Cespe- dez and Alvarez, 2000), M. dorsalis (Mertens, 1933), M. fulvoguttatus (Mertens, 1937), M. krauczuki (Baldo and Basso, 2004), M. montevidensis (Philippi, 1902), M. rubriventris (Vellard, 1947), and M. stelzneri (Weyen- bergh, 1875). Klappenbach’s Red-bellied Frog is characterized by a yellow stripe between the eyes or two to three large yel¬ low blotches forming a distinct interocular band. Its dor- COrrespondence. 2 s6nibehr@uni-bonn.de; 3 <7 roedder@leibniz-zfmk title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation ; official journal website . Received: 07 November 2017; Accepted: 07 March 2018; Published: 18 June 2018 The genus Toxicocalamus Boulenger, 1896 currently comprises fifteen taxa (fourteen species and one subspe¬ cies) of diurnal, semi-fossorial to terrestrial, secretive, vermivorous elapid snakes that are endemic to the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Several species are poorly represented in museum collections, and the most recently described species, Toxicocalamus ernstmayri O’Shea et al., 2015, is one of four species known only from their holotypes, the others being T. grandis (Bou¬ lenger, 1914), T. mintoni Kraus, 2009, T. pachysomus Kraus, 2009, and T. cratermontanus Kraus 2017. The holotype of T. ernstmayri (Museum of Comparative Zo¬ ology, Harvard University, accession number R-145946) is also the largest specimen so far recorded for the genus, with a snout-vent length (SVL) of 1,100 mm, and a total length of 1,200 mm (O’Shea et al. 2015). The holotype of Toxicocalamus ernstmayri , an adult female, was collected by one of us (FP) at Wangbin Village in the Star Mountains (5°14’26.72”S, 141°15’31.92”E, elev. 1,468 m). North Fly District, Western Province, Papua New Guinea, on 23 December 1969. The snake had been killed by a villager and handed to FP, a kiap x patrolling the area. It was originally accessioned into the museum collection as Micropechis ikaheka Lesson, 1830, due to its superficial resemblance to that taxon. We here report on the second individual of T. ernst¬ mayri, the first seen and photographed in life. The snake was sighted by one of us (BP) at 0750 hrs on 9 October 1 Kiap is a pidgin word derived from the German word Kapitan , which was applied to Australian pre-independence government patrol officers. Fred Parker served as a kiap from 1960-73, being based in Western Province from 1968-73. Correspondence. 1 m.oshea@wlv.ac.uk (Corresponding author); 2 brian.herlihy@bigpond.com; 3 blaise.paivu@oktedi.com; A fred_pl@bigpond.com ; 5 Steve.richards@samuseum.sa.gov.air . 6 hinrich.kaiser@vvc.edu Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 27 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 54 O’Shea et al. Fig. 1. Satellite map (derived from Google Earth) of the southern Star Mountains, North Fly District, Western Province, Papua New Guinea, with yellow dots on the larger map indicating two localities (Wangbin and Ok Tedi Mine), approximately 13 km apart, where Toxicocalamus ernstmayri has been recorded. The main town is Tabubil at the confluence of the Ok Tedi and Ok Mani, which flow into the Fly River. Scale = 5 km. The inset map illustrates the location of the larger map in relationship to the rest of New Guinea. 2015, as it crawled across an area of active mine workings along the west wall at the Ok Tedi Mine (5°12 , 53.77”S, 141°08 , 38.57 ,, E, elev. 1,670 m) approximately 13.2 km WNW of Wangbin, in the North Fly District where the holotype was collected (Fig. 1). It was observed for ap¬ proximately 20 min and photographed several times. The snake was not captured and measured, but as it can be seen completely spanning a 747 mm tire track (Fig. 2A) its total length is certainly >750 mm (estimated as ca. 850 mm). It was observed and photographed as it crossed open ground (Fig. 2B), rubble piles (Fig. 2C), and passed underneath a stationary digger (Fig. 2D), until it disappeared into the vegetation on the steep slope at the top left of Fig. 3. The snake can be identified as a member of the genus Toxicocalamus by the presence of six supralabials and the lack of the temporolabial scale (Fig. 4B’). The only other terrestrial Papuan elapid genus to lack a temporo¬ labial scale is Pseudonaja. An anterior body dorsal scale count of eight, from the vertebral scale row to the lowest dorsal scale row, can also be discerned from the images (Fig. 4C’, D’), indicating an anterior dorsal scale count of 15. There does not appear to be any head scute fusion although this is harder to discern with certainty from the images. The patterning of this snake in life can be seen clearly: it has a yellow body with large grey basal spots on each dorsal scale, and a grey cap to the head. This description agrees very closely with that given by Parker (1982: 55) for the aberrant Micropechis ikaheka , which would become the holotype of Toxicocalamus ernst¬ mayri: “One snake taken at Wangbin (1500 m above sea level) in the Star Mountains differed so much in co¬ louring from those at Kiunga and Ningerum that it may well represent another species. It was brought in already dead by a Wangbin villager People there agreed with him that it was extremely rare in the area. The head was black, the lips bright yellow. The body scales were a deep yellow, each having a grey ante¬ rior tip. The amount of pigmentation on each scale de¬ creasedfrom the vertebral row towards the outermost laterals, and increased evenly along the body, with the tail darkest. There were no indications of any bars on the body. The ventral surfaces were uniform yellow. ” The characters observed in the photographs of the newly observed individual are clearly diagnostic of T. ernstmayri and allow us to make an unequivocal species determination. The only other genus with which this snake can be confused is Micropechis, which exhibits a temporolabial scale (Fig. 5). Although entirely yellow specimens of M. ikaheka are known, they are confined to the Vogelkop Peninsula, West Papua Province, western New Guinea; all specimens of M. ikaheka known from PNG are strongly banded on the posterior Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 28 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 Rediscovery of the rare Star Mountains Worm-eating Snake Fig. 2. The first live individual of Toxicocalamus ernstmayri, observed and photographed in broad daylight at the Ok Tedi Mine, North Fly District, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. (A) The individual’s serendipitous crossing of a 747 mm wide tire track allowed an approximation of its total length as near 850 mm. (B) The snake moves in a straight line across open ground. (C) Slower movement across a rubble pile allowed a more detailed examination of head and body scales (see Fig. 4). (D) The individual moving under the tracks of a stationary digger. Photos by Blaise Paivu. body. At an SVL > 750 mm total length this individual of T. ernstmayri would appear to be a subadult, as it is considerably shorter than the holotype (SVL 1,200 mm). The encounter with an unusual, “golden” snake at the Ok Tedi Mine was sufficiently noteworthy, even in Papua New Guinea where snake encounters are commonplace, that it was presented in the mine’s own magazine {Ok Tedi Weng magazine, Issue 1, 2017, p. 6). Topography The source of the Ok Tedi 2 lies at approximately 2,900 m elevation in the central Star Mountains (Hyndman and Menzies 1990), just north of the provincial border be¬ tween Western and Sandaun (formerly West Sepik) Prov¬ inces of PNG, and approximately 28 km east of the in¬ ternational border with Papua Province, Indonesian New Guinea. From its source the Upper Ok Tedi flows rapidly south through extremely rugged mountainous terrain to 2 Ok = river, in the local Wopkaimin language (Keig 2001), the river is therefore known as the Ok Tedi, not the Ok Tedi River. In 1876 the Italian naturalist-explorer Luigi Maria d’Albertis (1841-1901) was the first foreigner to discover and navigate the lower reaches of the Ok Tedi, which he named the Alice River (d’ Albertis 1879, 1880), in honor of an acquaintance, Miss Alice Hargrave. meet the Ok Mani, flowing in from the southern slopes of Mount Fubilan, at an elevation of 400 m, just to the west of Tabubil. The distance travelled from the source of the Ok Tedi to the Ok Mani confluence is only ca. 28.5 river kilometers (23 km in a direct line), but the river has al¬ ready lost 2,500 m in elevation. The distance from Tabu¬ bil to the confluence of the Ok Tedi with the Fly River at d’Albertis Junction 3 is a further 170 river kilometers (100 km in a direct line) with a further drop in elevation to 70 m, from where the Fly meanders first southwest, then southeast to the Gulf of Papua. The town of Kiunga on the Fly River, (upstream by 45 river kilometers, 20 km in a direct line) east of d’Albertis Junction, lies at an elevation of only 20 m, yet it is approximately 375 km from the Fly delta, while the actual distance is closer to 800 river kilometers due to its meandering course across the low-lying flood plains (Halse et al. 1996). The Ok Tedi Mine is located on the slopes of Mount Fubilan (2,084 m), “a copper mountain with a gold cap” (Knox 2013), at an elevation of approximately 1,700 m. It is approximately 12 km northwest of the nearest popu- 3 D’Albertis originally called the confluence of the Alice River (Ok Tedi) with the Fly “Snake Junction” because he captured a python there (d’Albertis 1880) but today it is named in his honor. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 29 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 O’Shea et al. Fig. 3. View of an actively worked area of the Ok Tedi Mine. The observed individual of Toxicocalamus ernstmayri eventually disappeared into the vegetation on the slope in the top left of the photograph. Photo by Blaise Paivu. lation center, the town of Tabubil which was established to support the mine, yet the mine lies over 1.2 km higher. Tabubil, located at only 457 m elevation, is approximate¬ ly 450 km from the coast. The steepness of the southern Star Mountains, rising by 1,200 m in elevation over only 12 km in horizontal distance, contrasts with the almost imperceptible south-north increase in elevation (< 500 m over 450 km) of the Trans-Fly Region as a whole. At 1,700 m elevation, the Ok Tedi Mine is approxi¬ mately 230 m higher than Wangbin Village (1,468 m ele¬ vation), the type locality of T. ernstmayri , suggesting that this snake is probably confined to mid-montane eleva¬ tions in the Star Mountains. It is unlikely that it occurs as low as Tabubil (elevation < 500 m), given the com¬ plete lack of any specimens from there despite the large- scale development and burgeoning human population (see below). Even within its known range, this relatively large, diurnally-active snake would seem to be rare, as this region has been fairly thoroughly investigated by bi¬ ologists, including by one of us (SJR), yet no specimens have been collected or reported. The Vegetation and Climate Ok Tedi Mine’s elevation is close to the boundary be¬ tween Lower Montane Rainforest (1,000-1,800 m el¬ evation), and Low-altitude Midmontane Rainforest (1,800-2,200 m elevation), Zones 2 and 3 respectively of Hyndman and Menzies (1990). Lower Montane Rainfor¬ est comprises mixed evergreen forest with a 20-30 m tall canopy, dominated by emergent white oak ( Castanopsis acuminatissima) at tree height of up to 40 m, whereas Low-altitude Midmontane Rainforest is dominated by moss-covered Myrtle (Syzygium) and Screw Palm (Pun¬ ci anus) with a 25-30 m canopy height. Rainfall is high in the Upper Ok Tedi-Mount Fubilan region, with as much as 10,000 mm being recorded annu¬ ally at the mine (Hearn 1995), with little seasonal varia¬ tion, the lowest rainfall averaging 433 mm in Novem¬ ber, and the highest averaging 576 mm in June (Merkel 2017). The area lies in a belt known as the “midaltitude fringe high rainfall zone” (Hyndman and Menzies 1990), which experiences continual heavy rain, defined as over 50 mm per week (Brookfield and Hart 1971), although the previous figures amount to 100-140 mm of rainfall per week. Sometimes rainfall is excessive, and on at least four days a year there will be over 100 mm of rainfall over a 24-hour period, and once every 1-3 years rain¬ fall will exceed 150 mm in a single day (McAlpine et al. 1983). The Upper Ok Tedi-Mount Fubilan region is one of the wettest places, not only on the island of New Guinea but in the world 4 . The almost constant rainfall, and accompanying heavy cloud cover, results in lowered ambient tempera¬ tures. Temperatures recorded at several sites, at differ¬ ent elevations from Tabubil to Mount Fubilan, are lower than those expected for central New Guinea (Hyndman and Menzies 1990). Maximum daily temperatures range from 23.0-24.7 °C, while minimums at night range from 13.8-14.6 °C (Merkel 2017). The nights above 2,200 m are even colder with lows of 6.4 °C being recorded at Finimterr (2,300 m) (Hyndman and Menzies 1990), which means temperatures fall by 1 °C with every 200 m increase in elevation. This combination of relatively cold nighttime temperatures, almost continual rain, and dense cloud cover could in part account for the diurnal activity cycle of a relatively large snake species such as T. ernstmayri. Human Development Until the late 1960s Tabubil did not exist as a settlement. Shortly after the holotype of T. ernstmayri was collected by FP (late 1969) a small mining camp was established besides an airstrip (O’Shea et al. 2015: Fig. 9H) by the Kennecott Copper Corporation, who were engaged in the exploratory drilling on Mount Fubilan. Wangbin was a small neighboring hamlet on the edge of Lake Wangbin (O’Shea et al. 2015: Figs. 9A-C). During 1976-1980 the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton negoti¬ ated with the Government of Papua New Guinea to es¬ tablish the mining town of Tabubil and they subsequently established Ok Tedi Mining Limited to operate the gold and copper mine. The population of the Star Mountains Tabubil “census division” increased by 201%, from 556 to 1,676, in the decade 1980-1990 (Keig 2001), directly as a result of the establishment of the Ok Tedi Mine and the development of Tabubil. Over the same period Keig (2001) reported that the population of Western Province increased from 64,623 to 74,834, which amounts to only a 15.8% popu- 4 The annual rainfall at the Ok Tedi Mine is close to that received by the wettest places on Earth, listed as Mawsynram, Meghalaya (11,873 mm) and Cherrapunji, Meghalaya (11,430 mm), both in northeastern India (Anonymous 2017). Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 30 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 Rediscovery of the rare Star Mountains Worm-eating Snake Fig. 4. Confirming the individual’s identification as Toxicocalamus ernstmayri. (A) Close-up of the snake shown in Fig. 2C with insets B, C, and D indicated. (B, B ) Head and neck in extreme close-up. Color coding of head scalation includes six supralabials (orange), one anterior temporal (yellow), and two posterior temporals (blue), but no temporolabial (see Fig. 5). The head scutes appear to comply with the colubrid-elapid nine dorsal scute arrangement (i.e., two intemasals, two prefrontals, one frontal, two supraoculars, and two panetals; therefore lacking any head scute fusion, although this is difficult to discern from the magnified image with accuracy. (C, C’) Based on the visible dorsal scales, the dorsal scale count on the anterior body is 15. The count is achieved by locating the vertebral scale row and counting down to the lowest dorsal scale row (eight scales), doubling the count, and subtracting one scale to account for the single vertebral scale row. (D, D’) The dorsal scale count at midbody, performed as described for the previous panel, is also 15. lation increase overall. Western Province is vast, cov¬ ering 96,218 km 2 (37,150 sq mi; Blake 1972), and it is PNG’s largest province (by land area), and while a report by the IUCN (1995) gave the population of the province as 110,000, with a very low overall population density of 1.14/km 2 , the same report provided a population of 12,000 for Tabubil. This indicates a 716% increase in population size during the years 1990-1995, making Tabubil the largest urban population in the province, ex¬ ceeding even the 8,490 population of Daru, the provin¬ cial capital in the south of the province. The 2011 census (National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea 2014) Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 31 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 O’Shea et al. Fig. 5. Distinguishing Toxicocalamus from Micropechis. (A, A’) Holotype of T. ernstmayri (MCZ R-145946) from Wangbin, Western Province, PNG. (B, B’) Holotype of T. grandis (BMNH 1946.1.18.34) from Setakwa River, Papua Province, Indonesian New Guinea. (C, C’) Yellow phase of Micropechis ikaheka (BMNH 1909.4.30.12) from the FakFalc Peninsula, West Papua Province, Indonesian New Guinea. Color-coding of head scalation includes six supralabials (orange), a single anterior temporal (yellow), two posterior temporals (blue), and a temporolabial (red). The individual we report here clearly has the same head scute arrangement as T. ernstmayri. provided a provincial population of 201,351 with 10,270 for Tabubil, 631 for Wangbin, and 15,142 for Dam, sug¬ gesting a reversal in the relative populations sizes of Tabubil and Dam. Regardless of this apparent decline the population size and development of the Tabubil area during the last 4.5 decades has been substantial. The de¬ mographics of the Tabubil population are eclectic with company employees from around the world. However, the population of the Ok Tedi Mine remains relatively small, with employees concentrated within the actual mine compound. The surrounding midmontane rainfor¬ est remains thinly populated and under-explored. extremely rare in the area.” That it is also a diurnal spe¬ cies, of moderately large size, and seemingly relatively slow moving, would suggest that this species could be more vulnerable to persecution than some other taxa. It is therefore especially heartening that this snake was at no time hindered or molested as it crossed the mine work¬ ings, and that it was thought interesting and newswor¬ thy enough to be photographed, the images then being circulated to specialists for an identification, and then finally the sighting was featured as a full-page article in the company’s seven-page in-house publication, which finishes with this plea to its readers: Conservation The incursion of roads into remote rainforest areas could lead to the persecution and disappearance of vulnerable and misunderstood species like snakes. Toxicocalamus ernstmayri has always been an infrequently encoun¬ tered species, as exemplified by Parker’s (1982) com¬ ment above: “ People there agreed with him that it was “So should yon he fortunate enough to see one of these snakes in the wild, please observe it from a dis¬ tance and let it go on its way. They are very rare and recorded sightings are even rarer. Like all the wild life in our foot print we should appreciate its diversity, this snake and perhaps there are other animals out there are unique to this part of PNG and the world and should be appreciated and not killed. ” Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 32 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 Rediscovery of the rare Star Mountains Worm-eating Snake Acknowledgements. —The authors would like to thank Ok Tedi Mining Limited for granting pennission for this specimen to be reported and for images of the location to be published. Literature Cited Anonymous. 2017. Highest rainfall annually. Guinness World Records Limited, London, England. Avail¬ able: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world- records/highest-rainfall-annually/ [Accessed: 23 Sep¬ tember 2017], Blake DH. 1972. Western District. Pp. 1,187-1,193 In: Encyclopedia of Papua and New Guinea. Volume 2 L-Z. Ryan R, editor. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 1,231 p. Boulenger GA. 1896. Description of a new genus of elapine snakes from Woodlark Island, British New Guinea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 18(104): 152. Boulenger GA. 1914. An annotated list of the batrachi- ans and reptiles collected by the British Ornitholo¬ gists’ Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 20(5): 247-274. Brookfield H, Hart D. 1971. Melanesia: A Geographical Interpretation of an Island World. Methuen, London, United Kingdom. 464 p. d’Albertis LM. 1879. Journeys up the Fly River and in other parts of New Guinea. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 1(1): 4-16. d’Albertis LM. 1880. New Guinea: What I Did and What I Saw (2 Volumes). Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, London, England. X+406 p. Halse SA, Pearson GB, Jaensh RP, Kulmoi P, Gregory P, Kay WR, Storey AW. 1996. Waterbirds surveys of the Middle Fly River floodplain, Papua New Guinea. Wildlife Research 23: 557-569. Hearn GJ. 1995. Landslide and erosion hazard mapping at Ok Tedi copper mine, Papua New Guinea. Quar¬ terly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeol¬ ogy 28(1): 47-60. Hyndman DC, Menzies JI. 1990. Rain forests of the Ok Tedi headwaters, New Guinea: An ecological analy¬ sis. Journal of Biogeography 17: 241-273. IUCN. 1995. The Fly River Catchment, Papua New Guinea: A Regional Environmental Assessment. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. X+86 p. Keig G. 2001. Rural population growth in Papua New Guinea between 1980 and 1990. Asia Pacific View¬ point 42(2-3): 255-268. KnoxM. 2013. Boom: The Underground History of Aus¬ tralia, from Gold Rush to GFC. Penguin, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 416 p. Kraus F. 2009. New species of Toxicocalamus (Squa- mata: Elapidae) from Papua New Guinea. Journal of Herpetology 65(4): 460-467. McAlpine JR., Keig G, Falls R. 1983. Climate of Papua New Guinea. Australian National University Press, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Xii+200 p. Merkel A. 2017. CLIMATE-DATA.ORG. Available: https://en.climate-data.org/location/19240/ AM On¬ line Projects, Oedheim, Germany [Accessed: 03 July 2017], National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea. 2014. 2011 National Population & Housing Census: Ward Population Profile: Southern Region. National Statis¬ tical Office, Waigani, National Capital District, Papua New Guinea. 33 p. O’Shea M, Parker F, Kaiser H. 2015. A new species of New Guinea wonn-eating snake, genus Toxicocala¬ mus (Serpentes: Elapidae), from the Star Mountains of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, with a re¬ vised dichotomous key to the genus. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 161(6): 241-264. Parker F. 1982. Snakes of Western Province. Division of Wildlife, Department of Lands and Environment, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 78 p. I Mark O’Shea is a British herpetologist with a specialist interest in the snakes of New Guinea. He wrote A I Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea (1996) and is currently working on the second edition, expanded to encompass the entire New Guinea region, and he is also the author of four other books. Since 1986 he has made ten expeditions to New Guinea to conduct herpetological fieldwork, capture medically important elapids for snakebite research, or made films for Animal Planet or the BBC. He has worked in PNG for a variety of organizations from Operation Raleigh to Oxford University’s Department of Clinical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the Australian Venom Research Unit, University of Melbourne. O’Shea has considerable field experience in other countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, and has been engaged in fieldwork projects since the 1980s. He presented four seasons of the herpetological television series O’Shea’s Big Adventure, for Animal Planet and Discovery Channel, and has made films with other companies and broadcasters. Mark was awarded the Millennium Award for Services to Zoology by the British Chapter of the Explorers’ Club in 2000, and in 2001 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree by his alma mater, the University of Wolverhampton, for services to herpetology. He is now Professor of Herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton and teaches the “Animal Behaviour and Wildlife Conservation and Evolution” and “Origins of Life” courses at the University. He also holds the post as Consultant Curator of Reptiles at West Midland Safari Park, in the United Kingdom. O’Shea and Kaiser (below) are the leaders of the first comprehensive survey of the herpetofauna of Timor-Leste, Asia’s newest country. With ten phases of the project completed since 2009, the team has recorded upwards of 70 species, with more than twenty of these new to science. O’Shea, Kaiser, and Fred Parker (also below) are the describers of Toxicocalamus emstmayri , the subject species of this paper. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 33 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e154 O’Shea et al. Brian Herlihy is a New Zealander, and a Senior Safety Advisor for Ok Tedi Mines Limited (OTML). He holds an MBA in Technology Management from Deakin University/APESMA (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia). He has worked for OTML since 2016. Blaise Paivu is a Papua New Guinean citizen, and a Senior Mining Engineer for Ok Tedi Mines Limited (OTML). He has been employed by OTML from 1995 to 2010, and from 2013 until the present. He holds a Bachelor in Mining Engineering from University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea. Fred Parker was born in India and migrated to Australia in 1949. While working at the Healesville Sanctuary in the late 1950s he met the herpetologist Charles Tanner and became interested in herpetology. From 1960 until 1973 he worked as a kiap on Bougainville, in the Central Highlands, and Western District, Papua New Guinea. Derived from the German word kapitan , it is the tokpisin name for a Government Patrol Officer, usually an Australian, in Pre-Independence Papua New Guinea. During this time Parker collected many herpetological specimens for Ernest Williams, at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard, and Richard Zweifel, at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York. He also collected a large number of death adders for venom research and antivenom production by Tanner at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL), Melbourne, Australia. From 1973 he worked for the Wildlife Division in Port Moresby, on projects as diverse as crocodiles and butterflies, and rose to the position of Head of the Division, before returning to Australia in 1979. He has authored and coauthored numerous papers on the herpetofauna of PNG, including the original description of Toxicocalamus ernstmayri. Two frogs ( Cornufer parkeri and Xenorhina parkerorum ), one turtle ( Chelodina parkeri ), a skink ( Tribolonotusparkeri ), and three snakes ( Bothrochilus fredparkeri , Gerrhopilusfredparkeri , and Tropidonophis parkeri ) are named in his honor. Stephen J. Richards is an Honorary Research Associate at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Australia with a special interest in the herpetofauna of New Guinea. Since 1991 he has made approximately 50 expeditions to New Guinea to conduct herpetological fieldwork, and he has co-authored more than 130 publications about frogs and reptiles of that region, including the formal descriptions of nearly 100 new species discovered during these expeditions. He has published three field guides to frogs of local regions in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Stephen is the Regional Chair for Melanesia of the IUCN’s Amphibian Specialist Group and a member of the Papua New Guinea Government’s Biodiversity Expert Group. Richards has two frogs ( Hylophorbus richardsi and Litoria richardsi) and a skink ( Ctyptoblepharus richardsi) named in his honor. Hinrich Kaiser is a German-American herpetologist and educator with a research focus on biodiversity and conservation of tropical environments. A passion for scuba diving with experiences in the arctic and the tropics led Hinrich to study marine biology at McGill University and the University of Victoria in Canada. After an inspiring semester learning about amphibians and reptiles in David Green’s herpetology class in the Redpath Museum, Kaiser found his true calling and earned his Ph D. at McGill with a dissertation on the systematics and biogeography of Lesser Antillean frogs. After a Boehringer Ingelheim postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wurzburg, Germany, he spent five years as Professor of Biology at La Sierra University, Riverside, California, USA, before accepting his current position in the Department of Biology at Victor Valley College in Victorville, California, USA. Kaiser holds an appointment as Research Associate with the United States National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA. He currently serves as an Editor-in-Chief of Herpetology Notes , but his interests in international affairs and music also led him to memberships on the International Advisory Board of the Foundation for Post-Conflict Development, New York, and on the Advisory Council of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras. Kaiser serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Herpetology. His most recent publications have focused on the herpetofauna of Timor- Leste and nearby areas of Wallacea, as well as on the defense of herpetological taxonomy against taxonomic vandalism. He was also a coauthor on the original description of Toxicocalamus ernstmayri. His educational specialty is to expose community college students to biological, cultural, and historical experiences overseas, including canopy walks in Brunei, cooking classes in Bah, tracking Komodo dragons on Rinca Island, homestays in Cuba, and surveying Pacific atolls. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 34 June 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 54 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 35-48 (el55). Amphibians and reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal ^antosh Bhattarai, 12 Chiranjibi Prasad Pokheral, ^abu Ram Lamichhane, 3 Uba Raj Regmi, 3 Ashok Kumar Ram, and 4 Naresh Subedi 1 National Trust for Nature Conservation - Biodiversity Conservation Center, Ratnanagar-6, Sauraha, Chitwan-44204, NEPAL 2 National Trust for Nature Conseryation-Central Zoo, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, NEPAL 3 Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Parsa National Park, NEPAL 4 National Trust for Nature Conservation-Khumaltar, Lalitpur, NEPAL Abstract. —We report the results of a herpetofaunal inventory between July, 2014 and March, 2017 of Parsa National Park that detected 51 herpetofaunal species. Three amphibians (Microhyla nilphamariensis, Sphaerotheca breviceps, and Uperodon taprobanicus), two Gecko species (Hemidactylus flaviviridis and H. frenatus), one Agamid (Sitana fusca), two Skinks (Eutropis carinata and Sphenomorphus maculatus), 13 snakes ( Ahaetulla nasuta, Bungarus lividus, Coelognathus helena, Coelognathus radiatus, Chrysopelea ornata, Dendrelaphis tristis, Lycodon aulicus, Lycodon jara, Oligodon arnensis, Psammodynastes pulverulentus, Ptyas mucosa, Rhabdophis subminiatus, and Trimeresurus albolabris), and one crocodile ( Crocodylus palustris) are new records to Parsa National Park. This paper aims to highlight the understanding of amphibians and reptiles of Parsa National Park and will be a reference for herpetofaunal management in the park. Keywords. Herpetofauna, biodiversity, conservation, protected area, Terai-Arc Landscape, new records Citation: Bhattarai S, Pokheral CP, Lamichhane BR, Regmi UR, Ram AK, Subedi N. 2018. Amphibians and reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 35-48 (el 55). Copyright: © 2018 Bhattarai et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation ; official journal website . Received: 23 January 2018; Accepted: 20 February 2018; Published: 17 July 2018 Introduction Globally, amphibians and reptiles are among the least studied vertebrate taxa (Fazey et al. 2005). The amphib¬ ians and reptiles of Nepal have a wide range of both ver¬ tical and horizontal distribution. However, the field of herpetology has always received less priority than other vertebrates (Bhattarai et al. 2017). Among herpetofaunal species, only the gharial ( Govialis gangeticus ) subjected to long term monitoring and conservation efforts (Acha- rya et al. 2017). Information on species richness and distribution of amphibians and reptiles in management plans of many Protected Areas of Nepal including Parsa National Park (PNP) are poorly documented. Past stud¬ ies by Schleich and Kastle (2002) and Shah and Tiwari (2004) recorded 37 species from the PNP and lack de¬ tailed locality information. Since then, several taxonomic revisions of the species have been done. In addition to this, Kastle et al. (2013) listed eight species of herpeto¬ fauna which underestimates the species richness of the PNP. Here, we provide the comprehensive checklist on species richness with natural history data to highlight un¬ derstanding of the amphibian and reptile fauna of Parsa National Park. Study Area Parsa National Park (PNP), the youngest National Park in the country, was established in 1984 as Wildlife Re¬ serve and upgraded to National Park in 2017. It is geo¬ graphically located within 27° 15’ to 27°33’N, 84°4r to 84°58 , E. The unique sub-tropical dry ecosystem was established to protect habitat mainly for the resident population of wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). However, it also provides a habitat for migratory wild¬ life species and a dispersal site for spill-over popula¬ tion of Chitwan National Park to which it is connected at its western boundary and Valmaki Tiger Reserve of India to the South. Examples are the Asian one-homed Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis ), Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) and Gaur (Bos gaums). Understanding the potential to conserve many charismatic species, the Government of Nepal extended the area of the PNP in 2015 and the current area is 627 km 2 (Fig. 1). Besides its biodiversity conservation value, the PNP is also serving the vital needs of the large human population living south of the park by conserving water sources in the Siwalik hill and has reduced the soil erosion in the hill. The PNP includes mainly sub-tropical forests of the Siwalik and Correspondence. 1 santosh.bhattarai@hotmail.com (Corresponding author) Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 35 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. 84°45'E 84°50'E 84°55'E 85°0'E 85°5'E 85°10'E Fig. 1. Study location, Parsa National Park. Bhabar physiographic regions of Parsa, Makwanpur and Bara districts. The vegetation is mainly dominated by Sal (,Shorea robusta ) forest, and riverbeds and flood plains are covered by Saccharum spontaneum and Imperata cy- lindrica (Chhetri 2003). Although the PNP is connected with Chitwan National Park (Nepal) and Valmiki Tiger Reserve (India), very little information on species rich¬ ness and diversity is available (Lamichhane et al. 2017). We concentrated our search effort near permanent water bodies and artificially created ponds inside the park. Field investigations were conducted at Rambhori-Bhata, Halk- horia Daha, Amlekhganj-Hattisar, Adhabhar, Ghodema- san, Mahadev Khola, Gaduwa-line, and Nirmalbasti, Ramaul i-Pratappur. Field Methods We conducted surveys in both the dry and wet seasons. We used the visual encounter survey protocol (Heyer et al. 1994) and active searches from 10-20 July, 2014, 15-27 March, 2015, 18-21 June, 2015, 04-10 February, 2016, 17-25 July, 2016, and 03-09 March, 2017. We covered all major sites within the park. Our search effort focused on recording the diverse herpetological commu¬ nity as efficiently as possible. On each expedition, we spent three hours of intensive search combined with op¬ portunistic records. During the survey, on detection of an animal, we recorded the location, date, time, and micro¬ habitat. We did not use dogs or chemicals or any auditory cues for species detection. However, we included op¬ portunistic records of various herpetofauna encountered elsewhere within the PNP in our results. Photographs of detected animals were taken whenever possible and used as visual evidence for verifying species identifications. We used keys described in Smith (1935), Schleich and Kastle (2002), and Shah and Tiwari (2004) for identifica¬ tion. We followed Frost (2017) for nomenclature of am¬ phibians and Uetz et al. (2017) for reptiles. Results We recorded 12 species of amphibians in eight genera and four families of anurans (Table 1), and 39 species of reptiles which consisted of five species of skinks, three species of Geckonids, two species of Agamids, two spe¬ cies of monitor lizards, 25 snake species, and one tortoise and crocodile each (Table 1). We recorded 22 additional species in the area which accounted for 51 species of the herpetofauna in the PNP. These additional species consist of three species of anurans, two species of gecko, two species of skinks, 13 snake species, and one crocodile species. Species Accounts AMPHIBIANS Bufonidae (Gray 1825) Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider 1799): Recorded from Amlekhganj-Hattisar, Adhabhar, Rambhori-Bhata, Halkhoria Daha, Nirmalbasti, and Ramauli-Pratapur. This was commonly seen in and around human settle¬ ments during monsoon. Road-killed individuals of this Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 36 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e155 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Table 1. Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal. An asterisk (*) denotes new records to the area. S.N. Species IUCN Status AMPHIBIANS Bufonidae Gray, 1825 1. Duttaplvynus melanostictus (Schneider 1799) LC 2. D. stomaticus (Liitken 1864) LC Dicroglossidae Anderson, 1871 3. Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider 1799) LC 4. Fejarvarya syhadrensis (Annandale 1919) LC 5. Fejarvaiya teraiensis ( Dubois 1984) LC 6. Hoplobatrachus crassus (Jerdon 1853) LC 7. Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Daudin 1802) LC 8. * Sphaerotheca breviceps (Schneider 1799) LC Microhylidae Gunther, 1858 9. *Microhyla cf. nilphamariensis (Howlader, Nair, Gopalan, and Merila 2015) LC 10. Uperodon globulosus (Gunther 1864) LC 11. * Uperodon taprobanicus (Parker 1934) LC Rhacophoridae Hoffman, 1932 (1858) 12. Polypedates macn/atiis (Gray 1830) LC REPTILES Gekkonidae Gray, 1825 13. Hemidactylus cf. brookii Gray, 1845 NA 14. * Hemidactylus flaviviridis Rtippell, 1835 LC 15. * Hemidactylus frenatus Dumeril and Bibron, 1836 LC Agamidae Gray, 1827 16. Ca/oles versicolor (Daudin 1802) NA 17. * Sitana fusca Schleich and Kastle, 1998 NA Scincidae Gray, 1825 18. * Eutropis carinata (Schneider 1801) LC 19. Eutropis dissimilis (Hallowell 1857) NA 20. Eutropis macularia (Blyth 1853) NA 21. Lygosoma punctata (Gmelin 1799) NA 22. *Sphenomorphus maculalns (Blyth 1853) NA Varanidae Merrem, 1820 23. Varanns bengalensis (Daudin 1802) LC 24. Varanus flavescens (Hardwicke and Gray 1827) NA Typhlopidae Merrem, 1820 25. hidotyphlops braminus (Daudin 1803) NA Boidae Gray, 1825 26. Eryx conicus (Schneider 1801) NA Pythonidae Fitzinger, 1826 27. Python bivitlaliis Kuhl. 1820 VU Colubridae Oppel, 1811 28. *AhaetuIIa nasuta (Bonnaterre 1790) NA 29. Boiga tiigonata (Schneider 1802) LC 30. *CoeIognathus helenam (Daudin 1803) NA 31. *Coelognathus radiatus ( Boie 1827) LC 32. *ChiysopeIea ornata (Shaw 1802) NA 33. *DendreIaphis tristis (Daudin 1803) NA Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 37 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. Table 1. Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal. An asterisk (*) denotes new records to the area. S.N. Species IUCN Status Colubridae Oppel, 1811 34. *Lycodon aulicus (Linnaeus 1758) NA 35. *Lycodonjara (Shaw 1802) LC 36. * Ol igodon amen sis (Shaw 1802) NA 37. *Psammodynastes pulverulentus (Boie 1827) NA 38. *Ptyas mucosa (Linnaeus 1758) NA 39. Sibynophis Sagittarius (Cantor 1839) NA Elapidae F. Boie, 1827 40. Bungarus caeruleus (Schneider 1801) NA 41. Bungarus fasciatus (Schneider 1801) LC 42. * Bungarus lividus Cantor, 1839 NA 43. Naja naja (Linnaeus 1758) NA 44. Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor 1836) VU Natricidae Bonaparte, 1838 45. Amphiesma stolatum (Linnaeus 1758) NA 46. Xenochropis piscator (Schneider 1799) NA 47. *Rhabdophis subminiatus (Schlegel 1837) NA Viperidae Oppel, 1811 48. Daboia russelii (Shaw and Nodder 1797) LC 49. * Trimeresurus albolabris Gray, 1842 NA Testudinidae Batsch, 1788 50. Indotestudo el on gat a (Blyth 1854) EN Crocodylidae Cuvier, 1806 51. * Crocody/us palustris Lesson, 1831 VU species were frequently observed in the east-west nation¬ al highway between Amlekhgunj and Adhabhar segment. This is the most common bufonid in Terai, Nepal (Fig. 2 ). Fig. 2. Duttaphrymis melanostictus. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/NTNC-BCC. Duttaphrymis stomaticus (Lutken 1864): This was fre¬ quently encountered at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Pro¬ gram Office complex, Hattisar, Amlekhganj, Adhabhar, Ramauli-Pratappur, Bhata, and Nirmalbasti (Fig. 3). The individuals can be distinguished from D. melanostictus by absence of canthal black ridge and smaller tympanum. Fig. 3. Duttaphrymis stomaticus. Photograph by Santosh Bhat¬ tarai. Dicroglossidae (Anderson 1871) Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider 1799): The most common frog of Terai Nepal within and outside protected areas commonly encountered in water pools (Fig. 4). Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 38 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e155 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Fig. 4. Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis. Photograph by Santosh Bhat- tarai. Fejarvarya syhadrensis (Annandale 1919): The indi¬ viduals we recorded had no mid dorsal line with reddish orange patches which is characteristic of this species (Schleich and Kastle 2002). We recorded this species along marshy lands in the ponds inside the park. Fejervarya teraiensis (Dubois 1984): The calling males were recorded at puddles in Amlekhgunj, Adhabar, and Bhata. The individuals had a cream colored mid dorsal line with dorsolateral fold. According to Schleich and Kastle (2002), this species is well distributed in the entire Terai from 71 to 400 m. Hoplobatrachus crassas (Jerdon 1853): We found an in¬ dividual of this species at an anny post in Gaduwaline inside the park. Shah and Tiwari (2004) also recorded this species from Parsa. Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Daudin 1802): This is the largest frog of Terai region. Yellow colored breeding males were frequently observed in puddles during mon¬ soon (Fig. 5). Fig. 5. Hoplobatrachus tigerinus. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Sphaerotheca breviceps (Schneider 1799): Almost toad¬ like, stocky with distinct supratympanal fold. We found some specimens in Halkhoria Daha and Amlekhgunj- Hattisar area during June and July and calling males were also observed. This is the first record to Parsa National Park. Fig. 6. Sphaerotheca breviceps. Photograph by Santosh Bhat¬ tarai. Microhylidae (Gunther 1843,1858) Microhyla cf. nilphamariensis (Howlader, Nair, Gopa- lan, and Merila 2015): The type locality of this frog is Koya Golahut, Saidpur, Nilphamari, Bangladesh. Re¬ cently, Khatiwada et al. (2017) recorded it from central and eastern Nepal and proposed the Chitwan population to be M. nilphamarariensis based on molecular and call records. We believe the Parsa population to be M. nil¬ phamariensis (Fig. 7). However, only detailed molecular study will resolve its taxonomy. j Fig. 7. Microhyla cf. nilphamariensis. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Uperodon globulosus (Gunther 1864): This bulky globu¬ lar frog is frequently seen during monsoon, when calling males were seen during the night in Bhata area. Shah and Tiwari (2004) also reported the occurrence of this species from Parsa National Park (Fig. 8). Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 39 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. Fig. 8. Uperodon globulosus. Photograph by Santosh Bhatta¬ rai. Fig. 10. Polypedates maculatus. Photograph by Santosh Bhat¬ tarai. Uperodon taprobanicus (Parker 1934): This frog is gray¬ ish black, and individuals have reddish-orange dorsolat¬ eral irregular bands. Individuals with a mid-dorsal line from snout to vent and with mid-dorsal line were record¬ ed (Fig. 9). Males have folded black vocal sacs and were observed in amplexus. According to Schleich and Kastle (2002), this species is distributed from central to eastern Nepal between 100 and 300 m elevation. Bhattarai et al. (2017a) also recorded this species from Beeshazar and associated lakes, a Ramsar site. Fig. 9. Uperodon taprobanicus. Photograph by Santosh Bhat¬ tarai. Rhacophoridae (Hoffman 1932) Polypedates maculatus (Gray 1830): Calling males were frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Pro¬ gram office complex during the monsoon. This species was frequently observed on the office window and in the bathroom (Fig. 10). REPTILES Gekkonidae (Gray 1825) Hemidactylus cf. brookii (Gray 1845): Individuals with strongly keeled dorsal tubercles and tails with spines were recorded. Schleich and Kastle (2002) recorded H. brookii on buildings in Chitwan National Park. However, we recorded them in dead logs inside the park in Parsa National Park (Fig. 11). This species is regarded as a spe¬ cies complex and has been proposed for detailed molecu¬ lar studies to solve taxonomy of Nepalese populations (Rosier and Glaw 2010; Kathriner et al. 2014). \ I Fig. 11. Hemidactylus brookii. Photograph by Santosh Bhat¬ tarai. Hemidactylus flaviviridis (Ruppell 1835): This is a com¬ mon house gecko in the study area. Frequently seen at houses, park guard posts and army posts, and the temple inside the park, as well as villages nearby the park. This is the first record from the Parsa National Park. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 40 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Hemidactylus frenatus (Dumeril and Bibron 1836): We reported two individuals of this species, photographed at Bhata-Hattisar and Gaduwa. This is the first record of this species from Parsa National Park. Agamidae (Gray 1827) Calotes versicolor (Daudin 1802): This is the most common diurnal agamid distributed from below 100 m to 3,200 m in Nepal (Schleich and Kastle 2002). The species was frequently observed in and out of the park boundary (Fig. 12). Fig. 12. Calotes versicolor. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Sitana fusca (Schleich and Kastle 1998): This species was described from Bardibas, Mahottari district, Nepal ca. 100 km east of Parsa National Park. This is the first record of Sitana from Parsa National Park. This species was frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Program office complex, Bhedaha Khola, and Darau Khola. In June 2016, a gravid female was observed nest¬ ing in the office complex, and two hatchlings of same species were encountered in August 2016 (Fig. 13). Fig. 13. Nesting female of Sitana fusca. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Scincidae (Gray 1825) Eutropis carinata (Schneider 1801): Commonly ob¬ served inside the park basking in open grassland and on rocky substrates. Observed at Kamini Daha, Bhata, Ma- hadev Khola, Halkhoria Daha, Ghode Masan, Ramauli- Pratappur, Sikaribasb Bhedaha Khola, and Darau Khola. This is one of the most commonly observed skinks in Nepal. However, earlier researchers did not report it from Parsa National Park (Fig. 14). Fig. 14. Eutropis carinata. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Eutropis dissimilis (Hallowell 1857): Recorded from Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Sikaribaas basking during winter. This species is rarely seen compared to its congenerics in Parsa National Park (Fig. 15). Fig. 15. Eutropis dissimillis. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Eutropis macularia (Blyth 1853): Observed from Ka¬ mini Daha, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bhata, Nirmalbasti, Ramauli Pratappur, Mahadev Khola, and Ghode Masan (Fig. 16). Fig. 16. Eutropis macularia. Photograph by Binod Darai/ NTNC-BCC. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 41 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. Lygosomapunctata (Gmelin 1799): Observed from Bha- ta, Adhabhar, Sikaribaas, and Shitalpur (Fig. 17). Fig. 17. Lygosoma punctata. Photograph by Binod Darai/ NTNC-BCC. Sphenomorphus maculatus (Blyth 1853): This species was frequently observed in the foothills of Siwaliks in¬ side the park and found basking on the rocks of dry river beds (Fig. 18). This is the first record for Parsa National Park. Fig. 18. Sphenomorphus maculatus. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Varanidae (Merrem 1820) Varanus bengalensis (Daudin 1802): Individuals were observed at Kamini Daha, Masine area, Bhata, Adhab- har-PNP office, Bhedaha Khola, Shitalpur, and Ramauli- Pratapur. They were frequently observed at human habi¬ tations at Amlekhgunj, and one adult was rescued from the Nepal Oil Corporation’s office complex. The species is frequently seen in holes of the Sal ( Shore a robusta ) trees lying on the ground and on standing trees (Fig. 19). Fig. 19. Varanus bengalensis. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Varanus Jiavescens (Hardwicke and Gray 1827): This species was frequently encountered in the buffer zone around the PNP and in agricultural lands outside the park boundary. It is a legally protected varanid of Nepal which has been accorded the highest degree of protection in Schedule-I under the National Parks and Wildlife Con¬ servation Act, 1973. The species is facing severe threat due to illegal hunting for its flesh and skin. The skin of varanids is used for making musical instruments by local communities. Typhlopidae (Merrem 1820) Indotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803): The species was observed from Kamini Daha living inside leaf litter. Boidae (Gray 1825) Eryx conicus (Schneider 1801): This species was en¬ countered at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar (Fig. 20). Fig. 20. Eryx conicus. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/NTNC- BCC. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 42 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Pythonidae (Fitzinger 1826) Python bivittatus (Kuhl 1820): The python is the largest snake species in Nepal and it is distributed from Nep¬ alese Terai up to 2,800 m elevation in Nepal (Bhattarai et al. 2017). In the PNP, the species was observed from Bhata, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Halkhoria Daha, and Ra- mauli Pratapur (Fig. 21). The PNP has dry sub-tropical habitat and gets incidental fire. One injured python was found with wounds inside the park at Kamini Daha. Fig. 21. Python bivittatus. Photograph by Om P. Chaudhaiy/ NTNC-BCC. Colubridae (Oppel 1811) Ahaetulla nasuta (Bonnaterre 1790): An individual of this species was observed at Mahadev Khola basking on grasses and flew to the bush when approached. An¬ other individual was observed at Shitalpur on a Mallotus philippensis tree approximately 3.5 m from ground level. We report this species for the first time from the park. Fig. 22. Boiga trigonata. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Chrysopelea ornata (Shaw 1802): A juvenile individual was observed at Shikaribas Khola, and a dead specimen was found at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar (Fig. 23). This is the first record from Parsa National Park. Fig. 23. Chrysopelea ornata. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC Dendrelaphis tristis (Daudin 1803): The basking indi¬ viduals were encountered at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bha- ta-Hattisar, and Ghodemasan (Fig. 24). This is the first record from Parsa National Park. Boiga trigonata (Schneider 1802): Many killed speci¬ mens were found in the buffer villages and highway be¬ tween Amlekhgunj and Pathlaiya section of the National Park (Fig. 22). Coelognathns helena (Daudin 1803): Observed from Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Adhabhar-PNP office complex, and Ramauli Pratapur. This is the first record from Parsa National Park. Coelognathns radiatus (Boie 1827): Dead specimens were found near human habitation, and an individual was recorded at Kamini Daha. In May and June, the species is frequently observed in buffer villages of the park, and people kill the snakes when they encounter them. Fig. 24. Dendrelaphis tristis. Photograph by Om P. Chaudhaiy/ NTNC-BCC Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 43 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | e155 Bhattarai et al. Lycodon aulicus (Linnaeus 1758): Observed at NTNC- Parsa Conservation Program Office complex, and dead individuals were found at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar. A bask¬ ing individual was frequently observed in a crevice of a cemented water tank (Fig. 25). This is the first record from Parsa National Park. Fig. 25. Lycodon aulicus. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Lycodon jar a (Shaw 1802): Observed at Amlekhgunj- Hattisar. According to Schleich and Kastle (2002), it is a rarely found species from Terai Nepal. However, there are published reports of it in bordering states of India as well. This is the first record from Parsa National Park (Fig. 26). r . J HIM P 'J _• ‘-V ’Jaw. v V Fig. 26. Lycodon jar a. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Oligodon arnensis (Shaw 1802): Observed from Amle¬ khgunj-Hattisar and NTNC-Parsa Conservation Office Complex (Fig. 27). This species is also frequently ob¬ served in Chitwan National Park. Fig. 27. Oligodon arnensis. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Psammodynastes pulvernlentus (Boie 1827): According to Schleich and Kastle (2002), the records of the species were from Butwal, western Nepal, and Khotang, Uday- pur, and Ilam from eastern Nepal. Recently, Bhattarai et al. (2017) reported it from Ratomate-Harda Khola, Chit- wan National Park. Later the species was also observed at Triveni area of Chitwan National Park. In the PNP, the species was observed at Ghodemasan area, being the first record from the PNP (Fig. 28). Fig. 28. Psammodynastes pulvernlentus. Photograph by Tirtha Lama/NTNC-BCC, photograph taken at Triveni, Chitwan Na¬ tional Park. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 44 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Ptyas mucosa (Linnaeus 1758): Animals in combat were observed on 7 June, 2016. A road-killed specimen in the segment between Amlekhgunj and Adhabhar was record¬ ed. Individuals were frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Office complex (Fig. 29). This report is the first record for Parsa National Park. Fig. 29. Ptyas mucosa. Photograph by Santosh Bhattarai. Sibynophis Sagittarius (Cantor 1839): A specimen was found at Ghodemasan area basking on a riverbed (Fig. 30). Fig. 30. Sibynophis Sagittarius. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel. Elapidae (F. Boie 1827) Bungarus caeruleus (Schneider 1801): Specimens ob¬ served at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar. Killed specimens were found near human habitation (Fig. 31). Fig. 31. Bungarus caeruleus. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Bungarus fasciatus (Schneider 1801): One individual was found crawling inside Amlekhgunj-Hattisar in July 2016. Bungarus lividus (Cantor 1839): An individual was ob¬ served at Bhata-Hattisar on forest trail towards Bhata- temple. The second individual was found killed in Amle¬ khgunj. This is the first record from Parsa National Park. Naja naja (Linnaeus 1758): An individual was found basking in the riverbed of Bhedah Khola. Two individu¬ als were found killed at human habitation at Amlekhgunj (Fig. 32). Fig. 32. Naja naja. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/NTNC-BCC. Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor 1836): A dead specimen was recorded at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar. Another individ¬ ual was observed at Shitalpur camp in November 2016. (Fig. 33). Fig. 33. Ophiophagus hannah. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC Natricidae (Bonaparte 1838) Amphiesma stolatum (Linnaeus 1758): Frequently ob¬ served at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bhata-Hattisar, and Ad- habhar-PNP office complex. An individual was observed feeding on Duttaphrynus melanostictus at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Office complex. Road kills observed in the segment between Amlekhgunj and Adhabhar (Fig. 34). Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 45 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. Fig. 34. Amphiesma stolatum. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Xenochrophis piscator (Schneider 1799): The species was frequently observed in human habitation and a speci¬ men was seen in the Bhata wetland (Fig. 35). Fig. 35. Xenochropis piscator. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/ NTNC-BCC. Rhabdophis subminiatus (Schlegel 1837): Record of this species was previously not reported from the PNR Schleich and Kastle (2002) reported it from the Chitwan National Park. The specimen was recorded at Ghodema- san area basking on a rock (Fig. 36) in November 2016. Fig. 36. Rhabdophis subminiatus. Photograph by Dip Prasad Chaudhary/NTNC-BCC. Viperidae (Oppel 1811) Daboia russelii (Shaw and Nodder 1797): A single indi¬ vidual was observed from Bhata on the way to Rambhori grassland. The individual was basking near a gabion wall (Fig. 37). Fig. 37. Daboia russelii. Photograph by San tosh Bhattarai. Trimeresurus albolabris (Gray 1842): Two individuals were observed at Kamini Daha in March 2014 and June 2015. The third individual was observed from Ramauli- Pratapur in December 2016 (Fig. 38). Fig. 38. Trimeresurus albolabris. Photograph by Kapil Pokharel/NTNC-BCC Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 46 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Amphibians and Reptiles of Parsa National Park, Nepal Testudinidae (Batsch 1788) Indotestudo elongata (Blyth 1854): An individual was observed at Ghodemasan. Two rescued individuals were kept at Amlekhgunj-Hattisar. Later, they were released inside the park. Local people, especially business people, like to keep turtles and tortoises in captivity believing they are a sign of good luck for their business (Fig. 39). Fig. 39. Indotestudo elongata. Photograph by Santosh Bhat- tarai. Crocodylidae (Cuvier 1806) Crocodylus palustris (Lesson 1831): An individual was kept in an enclosure in Amlekhjung-Hattisar. Later, it was released in a wetland inside the park at Bhata. Discussion Our short expeditions resulted in 22 new species records for the PNP, including three species of frog, two geckos, one Agamid, two skink species, 13 snake species, and one crocodile. The details of new species recorded for the PNP are in Table 1. The record of Traschischium tenuiceps by Kastle et al. (2013) from the PNP needs to be verified as the el- evational range of the species in Nepal is 1,500-2,400 m (Schleich and Kastle 2002). We presume that the species was mistakenly reported from the PNP. Our survey mainly focused on daytime searches due to logistics. It is highly likely that many other amphibians and reptiles remain to be added to the list, especially fos- sorial and arboreal species. During our survey we failed to document Eryx johnii (Russell 1801) as this species is frequently observed in nearby areas. Among the species we recorded, Varamis flavescens and Python sp. are legally protected species in Nepal. The pythons are the only legally protected snake species of Nepal which has been accorded the highest degree of protection under the National Parks and Wildlife Con¬ servation Act, 1973. The Act has included the python in the Schedule-I as Python molurus. In 2009 Python bivit- tatus was elevated to specific status, and the occurrence of Python molurus in Nepal is doubtful (Bhattarai 2014). Therefore, we suggest P. bivittatus be listed in the Act instead of P. molurus. The IUCN has evaluated the tortoise Indotestudo elongata as an endangered species. Similarly, Crocody¬ lus palustris , Ophiophagus hannah, and Python bivit¬ tatus have been categorized as vulnerable species. The rampant killing of snake species in the buffer zone of the PNP is an observed threat. Buffer communities perceive all snakes to be venomous despite the fact that only 17% of Nepalese snakes are venomous (Bhattarai et al. 2017; Sharma et al. 2013). The national east-west highway bisects the park in the Amlekhganj-Pathlaiya section where many wild species are frequently observed trampled by the vehicular move¬ ment. The regular monitoring of this section will reveal the extent of wildlife loss due to vehicles. The PNP shares its western boundary with Chitwan National Park, and the Siwalik hill in the North might have unique species as this park has comparatively drier habitats. We believe detailed inventory will further in¬ crease the species richness and diversity of the park. Acknowledgements. —Amphibians and reptiles were recorded during field implementation of two proj¬ ects: 1. Community Based Human-Elephant Conflict Management in Chitwan-Parsa Complex ( Grant no# F15AP00340 ), 2. Mitigating Human-Tiger Conflict en¬ gaging local community in Parsa National Park {Grant no# F15AP00781 ). We would like to thank US Fish and Wildlife Service for these two funds to NTNC-BCC. We extend our gratitude to Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Chitwan and Parsa Nation¬ al Parks for endorsing these projects. We thank Kapil Pokharel, Harka Man Lama, Om Prakash Chaudhary, Ashish Gurung, Dip Prasad Chaudhary, Binod Darai, Ra- mesh Darai, Tirtha Lama, and team NTNC-BCC for their assistance in the field. We also acknowledge ZSL Nepal office for funding support to carryout camera trap sur¬ vey in Parsa National Park. We would also like to thank Mark O’Shea and Peter Uetz for their comments on the draft manuscript. We would also acknowledge Abhijit Das and two other reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. Literature Cited Acharya KP, Khadka BK, Jnawali SR, Mafia S, Bhatta¬ rai S, Wikramanayake E, Kohl M. 2017. Conservation and population recovery of Gharials ( Gavialis gange- ticus) in Nepal. Herpetologica 73(2): 129-135. Bhattarai S, Gurung A, Chalise L, Pokheral CP. 2017. Geographic Distribution: Psammodynastes pulvern- lentus (Mock Viper). Herpetological Review 48(1): 129. Bhattarai S, Pokheral CP, Lamicchane BR. 2017. Death- feigning behavior in Burmese Python Python bivit¬ tatus Kuhl, 1820 in Chitwan National Park. Russian Journal of Herpetology 24(4): 323-326. Bhattarai S, Pokheral CP, Lamichhane BR, Subedi N. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 47 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Bhattarai et al. Herpetofauna of a Ramsar Site: Beeshazar and As¬ sociated Lakes, Chitwan National Park Nepal. IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians 24(1): 17-29. Bhattarai S, Thapa KB, Chalise L, Gurung A, Pokheral CP, Subedi N, Thapa TB, Shah KB. 2017. On the dis¬ tribution of the Himalayan Stripe-necked Snake Lio- peltis rappi (Gunther, 1860) (Serpentes: Colubridae) in Nepal. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 11(1) [General Section]: 88-92 (el39). Bhattarai S. 2014. Population of Python bivittatus in Bar- dia National Park, Nepal. M.Sc. Dissertation Report, Department of Wildlife Science, University of Kota, Rajasthan, India. 64 p. Chetri M. 2003. Food habits of gaur Bos gaums gaums Smith, 1827 and livestock (cows and buffaloes) in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Central Nepal. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 1(1): 31-36. Fazey I, Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB. 2005. What do con¬ servation biologists publish? Biological Conservation 124: 63-73. Frost DR. 2017. Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA. Avail¬ able: http ://research. amnh. org/vz/herpetology/am¬ phibia/ [Accessed: 25 November 2017], Heyer WR, Donnelly MA, McDiarmid RW, Hayek LC, Foster MS. 1994. Measuring and Monitoring Bio¬ logical Diversity: Standard Methods for Amphibians. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, DC, USA. 364 p. Kastle W, Rai K, Schleich HH. 2013. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Nepal. ARCO-Nepal e.V. Munich, Germany. 625 p. Kathriner A, O’Shea M, Kaiser H. 2014. Re-examination of Hemidactylus tenkatei van Lidth de Jeude, 1895: Populations from Timor provide insight into the tax¬ onomy of the H. brookii Gray, 1845 complex (Squa- mata: Gekkonidae). Zootaxa 3887(5): 583-599. Khatiwada JR, Guo CH, Wang SH, Thapa A, Wang B, Jiang J. 2017. A new species of Microhyla (Anura: Microhylidae) from Eastern Nepal. Zootaxa 4254(2): 221-239. Lamichhane BR, Pokheral CP, Poudel S, Adhikari D, Giri SR, Bhattarai S, Bhatta TR, Pickles R, Amin R, Acharya KP, Dhakal M, Regmi UR, Ram AK, Sub¬ edi N. 2017. Rapid recovery of tigers Panthera tigris in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal. Oryx 52(1): 16-24. doi: 10.1017/S0030605317000886. Rosier H, Glaw F. 2010. Morphological variation and taxonomy of Hemidactylus brookii Gray, 1845, Hemi¬ dactylus angulatus Hallowell, 1854, and similar taxa (Squamata, Sauria, Gekkonidae). Spixiana 33: 139— 160. Schleich HH, Kastle W. 2002. Amphibians and Reptiles of Nepal. Koenigstein: Koeltz Scientific Books, Ger¬ many. 1,200 p. Shah KB, Tiwari S. 2004. Herpetofauna of Nepal: A Conservation Companion - Kathmandu. IUCN Ne¬ pal, Kathmandu, Nepal. 237 p. Sharma SK, Pandey DP, Shah KB, Tillack F, Chappuis F, Thapa CL, Elirol E, Kuch U. 2013. Venomous Snakes of Nepal: A Photographic Guide. B.P Koirala Insti¬ tute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. 86 p. Smith, MA. 1935. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Amphibia, Volume 2: Sauria. Taylor and Francis, London, England. 440 p. Uetz P, Freed P, Hosek J, editors. 2017. The Reptile Data¬ base. Available: htpp://www.reptile-database.org [Ac¬ cessed: 17 December 2017], Santosh Bhattarai currently works as Conservation Officer at National Trust for Nature Conservation- Biodiversity Conservation Center (NTNC-BCC), Sauraha, Chitwan, Nepal. He is particularly interested to understand evolutionary and ecological drivers of amphibians and reptiles by which species diversify and accumulate through time and space. Chiranjibi Prasad Pokheral currently works as Program Manager at National Trust for Nature Conservation- Central Zoo, Lalitpur, Nepal. He completed his Ph.D. in 2012 and has more than two decades of experience in species conservation and management in Nepal. He is focused on tiger conservation in Nepal. Babu Ram Lamichhane currently works as Research Officer at NTNC-BCC, He is interested in Human-Carnivore interactions and is pursuing his doctoral study in the same topic. Uba Raj Regmi works at Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. He has more than 25 years of experience of managing Protected Areas in Nepal. He currently works as Chief Conservation Officer at Langtang National Park, Nepal. Ashok Kumar Ram works at Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Currently, he is working as Assistant Conservation Officer at Parsa National Park. He is focused on Human-Elephant conflict management issues. Naresh Subedi completed his Ph.D. in 2012 and is currently based at NTNC-central office, Kathamandu, and works in the capacity of Conservation Program Manager. His earlier studies focsed on impact of invasive species on native wild animals and their conservation measures. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 48 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 55 Official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 49-51 (el56). Range extension of Cyrtopodion himalayanus Duda and Sahi, 1978 (Reptilia: Sauria) in Jammu Province of State Jammu and Kashmir from District Doda, Northern India ^mit Man has, 2 Rajni Raina, and 3 Ashwani Wanganeo 1 Research Scholar, Department of Environmental Sciences and Limnology>, Barkatullah University’ Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA 2 Professor, Department of Zoology), Govt. Science and commerce (Benazir) college, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA 3 Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Limnology, Barkatullah University Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA Abstract. —Documented are new distributional records of the poorly-known Gekkonidae Cyrtopodion himalayanus from the Doda region of Jammu and Kashmir State (India) based on specimens collected in three localities of the Doda region (Village Nai-Bhallara, Village Chagsoo, and Village Zazinda). Presented are notes on the morphology and coloration of the species in Doda, as well as photographs and a map indicating the known localities of Cyrtopodion himalayanus. This record represents an extension range of 60-80 km from the earlier reported locality of the species. The species Cyrtopodion himalayanus is the sole representative of the group Cyrtopodion, documented four decades ago from Kishtwar town of District Kishtwar (formally under District Doda) in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Keywords. Gekkonidae, new distribution, Kishtwar, reptiles, visual encounter survey, morphology Citation: Manhas A, Raina R, Wanganeo A. 2018. Range extension of Cyrtopodion himalayanus Duda and Sahi, 1978 (Reptilia: Sauria) in Jammu Province of State Jammu and Kashmir from District Doda, Northern India. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 12(1) [General Section]: 48-51 (el 56). Copyright: © 2018 Manhas et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use for non-commercial and education purposes only, in any medium, provided the original author and the official and authorized publication sources are recognized and properly credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: official journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation ; official journal website . Received: 18 March 2017; Accepted: 05 July 2017; Published: 17 July 2018 Introduction The state of Jammu and Kashmir includes three main ar¬ eas: Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh, which are different from one another in terms of topography, altitude, and climate. District Doda geographically falls in the outer Himalayan ranges and comes under the Jammu province of the state Jammu and Kashmir. District Doda also falls under seismic zone-V as per IS 1893 (Part I): 2002 and situated between 33°08'N, 75°32'E at an average eleva¬ tion of 1,107 m asl. The studies associated with other faunal components of the state have been increasing over the past years, whereas the study associated with reptil¬ ian fauna of the region is very scant. Fenton (1910) was a pioneer in ophidian studies in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the publication of The Fauna of British India by Boulenger (1890) and Smith (1935), very little attention has been given to its reptilian fauna. The work of Das et al. (1964), Duda and Koul (1974), Murthy and Sharma (1976), and Murthy et al. (1979) enlisted some records of reptiles, but their studies focused on only two regions of the state (Jammu and Kashmir), Kashmir and Ladakh. There was no information regarding reptilians from Jammu province until Sahi (1979), who has conducted an extensive survey of Jammu and Kashmir state for the herptiles and reported 76 species. He stated that the Jammu province of the state is the richest of the two re¬ gions of the state in terms of reptilian diversity. The dis¬ tinguishing oversight of references to the Doda region of Jammu province (Jammu and Kashmir state) on herptiles of the state undoubtedly indicates the lack of any faunis- tic survey ever having been conducted in this part of the state since Sahi (1979). Methodology We have conducted surveys during the years 2014-2015 following the visual encounter surveying method (Camp¬ bell and Christman 1982). The survey was conducted from March to mid-June for both years (2014 and 2015). We have photographed the specimens using a digital camera (Sony HX300), and geo-coordinates were re¬ corded using GPS (GPS test). Morphological measure¬ ments of the specimens collected were recorded by using a digital caliper (Precision 150). The specimens sighted Correspondence. 1 amitmanhasl986@gmail.com (Corresponding author) Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 49 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 56 Manhas et al. &}[#&! led ^ Earlier record j/y* A Present record Fig. 1. Depicting the localities of distribution (Earlier and Present). were identified with the help of descriptions and keys given by Sahi (1978). Results and Discussion Cyrtopodion is a complex group of Asian geckos com¬ prising of 37 species at present (Uetz and Hosek 2015). While surveying the herptiles of the state (Jammu and Kashmir), Duda and Sahi (1978) had collected eight specimens of Cyrtopodion himalayanus (75.7E, 3.3N; 1,700 m) at an elevation of 1,700 m from a house in Kishtwar town on 8 May and 24 October, 1978 in District Kishtwar (formerly under District Doda) and described it as a new species of Cyrtopodion (earlier = Cyrtodacty- 1ns (Duda and Sahi 1978)) (Fig. 2). During an investiga¬ tion (2014-2015) of reptilian fauna in District Doda, we sighted individuals of the species from three localities different from the earlier record (Fig. 1). The stations are Nai-Bhallara (33°05’20.69”N, 75°42’30.24 ,, E; 1,808 m asl), Village Chagsoo (33°07 , 33.27 ,, N, 75°40 , 11.50 ,, E; 1,743 m asl), and Village Zazinda (33°5’34.48”N, 75°38 , 19.74”E; 2,157 m asl). The stations Nai-Bhallara and Village Chagsoo fall under Tehsil Thathri of District Doda, whereas the latter falls under Tehsil Bhaderwah. The stations are about 60-80 km away from the Kisht¬ war town. The specimens were sighted near human set¬ tlements (inhabited debris and house wall crevices). The specimens were studied alive and released at the same place after ensuring their morphological and physiologi¬ cal characteristics. The morphological and physiological characteristics of Cyrtopodion himalayanus sighted during the present investigation are given in Table 1. Various distinguish- Amphib. Reptile Conserv. ing features of every individual were observed, such as: greyish body with dark brown reticulation; brown head with a distinct streak from nape to snout passing through eye on each side; inverted snout; small nostrils placed dorsolaterally; ten upper-labials; eight lower-labials; snout longer than the distance between the eye and ear opening; ear opening sub-oval; clawed digits; claws em¬ bedded between two large shields. Duda and Sahi (1978) analyzed and documented the body length of the specimens to be between 125 mm and 140 mm during their study, whereas morphological characteristics of Cyrtopodion himalayanus of the cur¬ rent study reveal specimens with lengths from 115 mm to 136 mm. Literature Cited Boulenger GA. 1890. The Fauna of British India: Rep- tilia and Batrachia. Taylor and Francis, Fondon, Eng¬ land. 570 p. Campbell HW, Christman SP. 1982. Field techniques for herpetofaunal community analysis. In: Herpetologi- cal Communities. Editor, Scott Jr. NJ. Washington, USA. 239 p. Das SM, Malhotra YR, Duda PE. 1964. The Palearctic elements in the fauna of Kashmir. Kashmir Science 1 / 2 : 100 - 111 . Duda PE, Sahi DN. 1978. Cyrtodactylus himalayanus'. A new Gekkonid species from Jammu, India. Journal of Herpetology 12(3): 351-354. Duda PL, Koul O. 1974. Seasonal changes in the histo- morphology of the gonads of Agama tuberculata , an oviparous, and Lygosoma himalayanus , an ovovivipa- July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 56 50 Range extension of Cyrtopodion himalayanus Fig. 2. Cyrtopodion himalayanus (A) Enlarged lateral view of head. (B) Full lateral view of the body. rous lizard from Kashmir. Kashmir University. 234 p. Fenton LL. 1910. The snakes of Kashmir. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 29: 1,002-1,004. Murthy TSN, Sharma BD, Sharma T. 1979. Second re¬ port on the herpetofauna of Jammu and Kashmir. The Snake 11: 234-538. Murthy TSN, Sharma BD. 1976. A contribution to the herpetology of Jammu and Kashmir. British Journal of Herpetology 5: 533-538. Table 1 . Variations in various characteristics of specimens of species Cyrtopodion himalayanum. Characteristics Range Full body length 115 mm-136 mm Snout-vent length 61.89 mm-68.79 mm Tail length 53.11 mm-67.21 mm Head width 11.75 mm-14.91 mm Head length 16.35 mm-21.38 mm Snout to mouth length 12.13 mm-14.58 mm Intra-orbital distance 1.86 mm-3.10 mm Eye diameter 5.22 mm-5.45 mm Nostril to eye length 5.35 mm-6.16 mm Ear diameter 1.89 mm-2.80 mm Nostril to ear length 13.86 mm-15.79 mm Forearm length 17.80 mm-20.81 mm Hind arm length 14.97 mm-17.87 mm Supralabial scales 10/10 Infralabial scales 8/8 Sahi DN. 1979. A contribution to the herpetology of Jammu and Kashmir State. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Smith MA. 1935. The Fauna of British India. Volume II. Sauria. Taylor and Francis, London, England. 440 p. Uetz P, Hosek J. 2015. The Reptile Database. Available: http://www.reptile-database.org [Accessed: 22 De¬ cember 2015], Amit Manhas is an independent researcher. He completed his Ph.D. in zoology in 2017 from Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India. He has keen interest in studying reptilian diversity, ecology, and distribution. Presently his research studies are focused on reptilian diversity of Jammu and Kashmir state of India. He has a keen interest in exploring living and spiritual forms of ecosystems, and publishing his findings on the Internet (www.personalife.org). Dr. Rajni Raina is a professor of zoology at Government Science and Commerce College, Benazir, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. She is enthusiastically contributing in the field of research. Professor Raina is actively supervising new researchers in different aspects of zoology. Dr. Ashwani Wanganeo is a professor in the Environmental Sciences and Fimnology Department of Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India. He has made significant contributions in the field of Fimnology and Ecology. He has also been active in guiding many new researchers fascinated in various fields of limnology and ecology. Amphib. Reptile Conserv. 51 July 2018 | Volume 12 | Number 1 | el 56