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Herpetological Update from Arno Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands

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Herpetological Update from Arno Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 699-712 (2020) (published online on 25 August 2020) Herpetological Update from Arno Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands Hinrich Kaiser1,2,*, Kaitlin J. Rickerl1,3, Melinda M. Hull1,4, Morgan M. Lewis1,5, and Mitzia J. Zambada1,6 Abstract. A visit to Arno Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in July 2016 revealed several reptile records of interest, including the first vouchered country record of the gecko Gehyra insulensis (Girard, 1857) and the first record of the blindsnake Indotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803) for this atoll. Furthermore, multiple species of Emoia were observed to co-occur on small islets, illustrating their ability to finely divide habitat resources. We also include some previously unreported records for Arno Atoll based on specimens in museum collections. While our brief research period (ca. 40 person-hours) on four islands of this atoll presents a very limited snapshot of reptile distributions, it indicates that a significant amount of research still needs to be conducted to achieve a more complete understanding of the reptile fauna on Marshallese atolls. Keywords. Marshall Islands, Arno Atoll, Gehyra insulensis, Lepidodactylus lugubris, L. moensis, Indotyphlops braminus, Emoia distribution Introduction 133 small islands and islets around a lagoon, and it is the closest atoll to the country’s capital city at Majuro, The Republic of the Marshall Islands is the where the international airport is located (Fig. 1). Arno northeasternmost sovereign nation in the Central Atoll is therefore one of the most easily accessible atolls Pacific. With a total area comprising 470,000 km2 of in the country. ocean area, the country includes a landmass of only 181 The task of visiting all islets of even a single atoll km2, composed of 29 atolls and five isolated islands that is logistically complex and both time- and labour- are widespread and not easily accessible. One of these, intensive. Herpetological surveys on Arno Atoll were Arno Atoll (land area = 13 km2), is made up of a ring of conducted primarily in the quarter century following U.S. nuclear testing in some of the more remote atolls (e.g., Bikini, Enewetak), when interest in these islands was elevated. Specimens from these efforts were duly deposited in natural history collections but some of 1 Department of Biology, Victor Valley College, 18422 Bear these findings have not been published. After we spent Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA. four days on Arno Atoll in July 2016 and devoted some 2 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Zoologisches time to surveys of terrestrial reptiles, we decided to Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, find and list any additional records along with our own. 53113 Bonn, Germany. The key publications on the reptiles of Arno Atoll by 3 Present address: Department of Animal Care, Western University of Health Sciences, 309 East Second Street, Marshall (1950) and Kiester (1983) form the baseline Pomona, California 91766, USA. for this study, along with the two important general texts 4 Present address: Department of Biology, California State by Zug (2013) and Buden and Taboroši (2016), which University Channel Islands, One University Drive, were invaluable to us when trying to identify species. Camarillo, California 93012, USA. We previously reported on our fortuitous encounter with 5 Present address: 1088 67th Street, Oakland, California 94608, an Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the USA. 6 Present address: Stine Chiropractic, 17330 Bear Valley Road, atoll’s lagoon during the same time frame (Kaiser et al., Suite 105, Victorville, California 92395, USA. 2016). We here present the results of our own efforts * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] and of the discoveries in museum collections. 700 Hinrich Kaiser et al. Figure 1. Map of Majuro and Arno Atolls in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The area of Majuro Atoll occupied by the city of Majuro, the capital of the country, is shaded in yellow. Scale = 30 km. The globe in the upper right-hand corner shows the position of these atolls in the Pacific Ocean. (A) Close-up of the pertinent regions of Arno Atoll, including the northeastern section of Arno Island with the three smaller islets of Enedoul, Eneloklab, and Kemmaan to the north. Scale = 3 km. Figure created by Mark O’Shea using maps from Google Earth and the globe from Mountains High Maps (Digital Wisdom, Tappahannock, Virginia, USA; www.digiwis.com). Materials and Methods islands’ eastern side, with occasional forays further inland. On Kemmaan, our surveys were restricted to the Based at Arno Beachcomber Guesthouse on Arno southern third of the island. Some animals were captured Island (7.0596°N, 171.5567°E, elevation 3 m), the main island of the atoll, we conducted visual encounter surveys of reptiles during both daytime and night-time over a period of four days (1–4 July 2016). Surveys on Arno Island consisted of walking north to the end of the 1 ���������������������������������������������������������������� island and south to the jetty along the main road during we use those found on a map we saw and photographed at the the daytime, returning along the beach on the lagoon Alele Museum in Majuro, which is also the map available on side. In addition, we conducted nightly walks near the the website of the Marshall Islands Visitor Authority (www. guesthouse. One survey day (2 July 2016) was devoted visitmarshallislands.org). We confirmed that these were in- to an exploration of the skink fauna on three islets1 deed the names used locally by asking our hosts on Arno Atoll. It should be noted that Google Maps lists these names (Fig. 1A: Eneloklap – 7.0867°N, 171.5577°E; Enedoul with different spelling and with the first two islands errone- – 7.0913°N, 171.5597°E; Kemmaan – 7.1013°N, ously listed in reverse order. Examples of different spellings 171.5639°E). On Eneloklap and Enedoul, we conducted for these three islets are Aneloklab, Anedoul, and Kemmwan, surveys by walking primarily along the beach on the respectively. Herpetological Update from Arno Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands 701 and held briefly for photography, then released in the Identification.—We distinguished this gecko from G. exact location of capture. Photographic vouchers have oceanica (characters in parentheses) by its smaller size been deposited in the Herpetological Images Collection, (larger), flattened tail with slight caudal serrations (more Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of cylindrical tail with pronounced caudal serrations), and Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, the presence of eight or nine subdigital lamellae (12–16 D.C., USA (USNM-HI). Geckos were considered to lamellae). Based on the presence of hemipenial bulges be male when hemipenial bulges and precloacofemoral and femoral pores (Fig. 3A), we could determine that pores were present. Females could only be positively the individual was a male. identified if eggs were visible through the abdominal Remarks.—To the best of our knowledge, and based wall; we made no assumptions about sex based on the on our database searches, this is the first record of G. absence of characteristics. For species identification insulensis for Arno Atoll and for the Marshall Islands. we used illustrations and descriptions in Buden and Gehyra insulensis is the cryptic Pacific lineage (Rocha Taboroši (2016) and Zug (2013) and received the et al., 2009) of what used to be considered G. mutilata assistance of Donald Buden (College of Micronesia (Wiegmann, 1834). It ranges across the Pacific, from – FSM) and George Zug (USNM). Abbreviations of museum collections follow Sabaj (2016). New Guinea to the coast of Mexico, with an apparent We also report on some records obtained from the gap in the eastern Federated States of Micronesia (absent literature, via searches of the VertNet, iDigBio, and GBIF from Kosrae; Buden and Taboroši, 2016). Our new (GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/ record now fills another large gap in the distribution of dl.ef7z2r, 25 May 2020) databases, and from natural the species, the Marshall Islands. Several orange mites history museum records (BPBM, CAS, KU, MCZ, were present, one on top of the left hind limb, others in MVZ, UAZ, UNR, USNM). We used the taxonomic the space between some claws and lamellae on toes of search term “Reptilia” combined with the geographic both hind limbs. terms “Arno” or “Marshall Islands” and downloaded the results. These records were then subjected to careful Gehyra oceanica (Lesson, 1830) scrutiny in order to identify specimens collected only on Oceanic Gecko Arno Atoll, using our own list of Arno Atoll islands (an Observations.—While we did not encounter this unpublished compilation) as well as local knowledge as species during our surveys, it has previously been an aid. Our island names are those used locally, based collected on Arno Island (CAS 183850–62), Ine Island on the map in the Alele Museum, Majuro. We are using (UNR 6395–96, USNM 132383–85), and Matolen Islet these records in our accounts only as needed to support (USNM 132152, 132381–82). the statements we make; we are not including complete specimen lists. Hemidactylus frenatus Duméril & Bibron, 1836 Common House Gecko Results Observations.—We found several specimens of H. Excluding sea turtles, we recorded 17 species of reptiles frenatus by night on Arno Island, including many on Arno Atoll, including 16 lizards (eight geckos, eight juveniles. The largest individual (USNM-HI 2921; skinks) and one snake. We detail our findings in the Figs. 2B, 3C) was seen on the outside wall of a building. following species accounts. The distribution of reptiles Several juveniles were seen on human-made structures on Arno Island and the three islets immediately to the (including cement structures and wooden shelters), north, which represent the extent to which we surveyed, and others on palm trees or in decaying foliage on the is provided in Table 1.
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