HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(1):182–184189 • APR 2021

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLEHUSBANDRY OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: OnHatching the Road to Understanding the Ecology Buff-striped and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent Keelback ...... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion(Amphiesma ...... stolatum)Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCH ARTICLES . The EggsTexas Horned Lizard in in Central a and WesternHome-made Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer,Incubator Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... Brian J. Camposano,Tapil P. Kenneth Rai1,2 L. andKrysko, Sabin Kevin M.Adhikari Enge, Ellen3 M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

CONSERVATION1Turtle Rescue and Conservation ALERT Centre (TRCC), Arjundhara Municipality-9, Jhapa, Nepal ([email protected]) 2 . World’sDepartment Mammals in ofCrisis Environmental ...... Science, Mechi Multiple Campus, Bhadrapur Municipality-8,...... Jhapa, Nepal 220 3 . More Than Mammals ...... TRCC-Turtle’s Club, Arjundhara Municipality-9, Jhapa, Nepal...... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ...... 225

he Buff-stripedHUSBANDRY Keelback (Amphiesma stolatum) is an Park, Arjundhara, Jhapa. Average size of the eggs was 22.6 Tinoffensive natricid. Captive thatCare of is the abundant Central Netted and Dragon widely ...... distrib- x 13.0 mm (Table 1). After Shannon taking Plummer measurements, 226 the eggs uted from Pakistan across the Himalayas to Assam, India, Sri were returned to the original positions. Female Buff-striped Lanka, the AndamanPROFILE Islands, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Keelbacks are known to show parental care by attending egg . Laos, Vietnam, and Kraigsouthern Adler: A LifetimeChina Promoting (Whitaker Herpetology 1978; ...... Daniel clutches for several days (Schleich Michael L. Treglia and Kästle234 2002); however; 1983; Schleich COMMENTARYand Kästle 2002). In Nepal, it occurs in the both of these clutches appeared to have been abandoned, entire Terai (southern. The Turtles lowlands) Have Been and Watching midlands Me ...... to an eleva- which might be due to the presence Eric Gangloff of238 considerable human tion of 1,600 mBOOK (Kästle REVIEW et al. 2013). Buff-striped Keelbacks activity at both sites. generally are found. inThreatened the vicinity Amphibians of waterof the World but edited are not by S.N. limited Stuart, M. Hoffmann, At J.S.the Chanson, TRCC, N.A. we Cox, constructed an incubator (Fig. 2) from to wetland habitats. TheyR. Berridge, also P. inhabit Ramani, and grasslands, B.E. Young ...... shrublands, a styrofoam box that had been Robert used Powell to store243 fish. The box was and cultivated and semi-cultivated areas where they are ter- lined with a plastic sheet to prevent leakage and aluminum restrial rather than CONSERVATION semiaquatic (Whitaker RESEARCH 1978;REPORTS: Kästle Summaries et al. of Publishedfoil Conservationfor insulation; Research it Reports was ...... then equipped 245 with an electric heater  NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247 2013). These snakes NEWBRIEFS consume ...... a wide variety of prey; juve- set at 30 °C to ...... maintain a stable water 248 temperature and an niles feed on insects EDITORIAL and tadpoles, INFORMATION whereas ...... adults consume aquarium filter pump to circulate...... the heated 251 water. We then  snails, fishes, anurans,FOCUS lizards, ON CONSERVATION rodents, and: Abirds Project (Whitaker You Can Support ...... placed a plastic bowl filled with a mixture 252 of fine sand and 1978; Schleich and Kästle 2002; Kästle et al. 2013). Buff- soft soil on a pair of PVC pipes and placed the eggs on the striped Keelbacks are oviparous, laying 5–15 eggs from May substrate. On days 1–10, water and substrate temperatures to September (Schleich and Kästle 2002). These snakes are were 32 and 28 °C, respectively; on days 11–19, respective most active during the monsoon andFront they Cover. hibernate Shannon Plummer. in winter temperaturesBack Cover. wereMichael 33 Kern and 31 °C. Relative humidity was 92% Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo and aestivate during the summer (Danielestibus inveliquo 1983; velique Schleich rerchil and throughoutestibus inveliquo the velique incubation rerchil period. Kästle 2002). Although Buff-stripederspienimus, Keelbacks quos accullabo. are harmless, Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum they often are misidentified as babyfugiatis cobras maionsequat and eumque needlessly fugiatis maionsequat eumque killed (Whitaker 1978). moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- On 26 July 2020, the seniorma author derrovitae received voluptam, asinforma quos - tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. tion about snake eggs in a pile of hay (Fig. 1) in Pokopada, Bhadrapur, Jhapa. Of the four eggs, one was damaged while removing hay to feed the cattle but the remaining eggs were safely transferred to the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre (TRCC) in Jhapa District in southeastern Nepal. The TRCC is the only organization in this region that has been working for the conservation of amphibians and rep- tiles since its establishment in 2012. The three rescued eggs had an average size of 23.1 x 11.9 mm (Table 1). On 14 Fig. 1. Eggs of a Buff-striped Keelback (Amphiesma stolatum) in a pile September 2020, the senior author measured five Buff-striped of hay in Bhadrapur, Jhapa District, southeastern Nepal. Photograph by Keelback eggs found in a stack of bricks at the Birtamod Bus Swastika Karki.

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 182 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. RAI AND ADHIKARI REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(1):182–184 • APR 2021

Table 1. Morphometry of eggs laid by two females

Locality Clutch Size Egg Size (mm) Remarks Pokopada, Bhadrapur, Jhapa 4 23.1 x 11.5 Incubated at the TRCC 23.0 x 12.2 Incubated at the TRCC 23.1 x 12.0 Incubated at the TRCC Damaged Discarded

Birtamod Bus Park, Arjundhara, Jhapa 5 22.0 x 13.0 Returned to original site 23.0 x 13.2 23.0 x 13.2 22.5 x 13.0 22.5 x 12.5

Fig. 2. Constructing a home-made incubator, placing Buff-striped Keelback (Amphiesma stolatum) eggs on the substrate, and incubating the eggs at the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre (TRCC) in Jhapa District, southeastern Nepal. Photographs by Tapil P. Rai (left and right) and Sabin Adhikari (center).

On 15 August 2020, after 19 days of incubation, we We provided small insects but did not observe feeding. One found two hatchlings during a routine observation and the hatchling shed six days after hatching. After 15 days of obser- third emerged from the egg 12 h later (Fig. 3). Average total vation, all were released into suitable natural habitat. length of the three hatchlings was 143 mm. All readily swam The incubation period varies with temperature, being in the incubator water before they were transferred to a large longer in cooler uplands (Daniel 1983). Ten eggs laid on aquarium, where they spent most of their time under cover. 21 May began hatching on 7 June (Minton 1966), which We observed one hatchling basking on a stone at 1100 h. appears to be the shortest incubation recorded. Schleich and Kästle (2002) mentioned an incubation period of 36–62 days at 25–30 °C and 90% relative humidity, and Parmar and Limbachiya (2020) noted hatching after 49 days of incuba- tion at temperatures of 26–33 °C. Total lengths of hatch- lings vary considerably, with Daniel (1983) and Schleich and Kästle (2002) listing a range of 133–177 mm and Whitaker (1978) a range of 90–170 mm.

Acknowledgements We thank Swastika Karki and Samiksha Rai for inform- ing us about the snake eggs; members of the TRCC Turtle Club, Saroj Chauhan, Bigyan Kharel, and Roshan Pahari, for helping to build the incubator; the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre (ARCO-Nepal and SUMMEF) for Fig. 3. Hatchling Buff-striped Keelbacks (Amphiesma stolatum) in the home- made incubator at the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre (TRCC) in supporting our work; and the TK Company for bearing the Jhapa District, southeastern Nepal. Photograph by Tapil P. Rai. expenses of constructing the incubator.

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Literature Cited of the American Museum of Natural History 134: 29–184. Daniel, J.C. 1983. The Book of Indian Reptiles. Bombay Natural History Society, Parmar, D.S. and V.P. Limbachiya. 2020. Artificial Incubation of Buff-striped Keelback (Amphiesma stolatum) eggs. Reptiles & Amphibians 27: 335–336. Bombay, India. Schleich, H.H. and W. Kästle (eds.). 2002. Amphibians and Reptiles of Nepal: Biology, Kästle, W., K.R. Rai, and H.H. Schleich. 2013. Field Guide to Amphibians and Systematics, Field Guide. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag, Ruggell, Liechtenstein. Reptiles of Nepal. ARCO-Nepal e.V., München, Germany. Whitaker, R. 1978. Common Indian Snakes: A Field Guide. The Macmillan Minton, S.A., Jr.1966. A contribution to the herpetology of West Pakistan. Bulletin Company of India Limited, Delhi, India.

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