WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES &IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 189 24(2):118–119 • AUG 2017 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES Observation. Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis ofcatenifer sayia) in Wisconsin:Deformity (Anophthalmia) On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: in theA HypotheticalCritically Excursion ............................................................................................................................ Endangered AmboliRobert W. Henderson 198Toad RESEARCH(Xanthophryne ARTICLES tigerina) from the . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida .............................................WesternBrian J. Camposano, Kenneth Ghats L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge,of Ellen M.India Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 CONSERVATION ALERT Anish Pardeshi . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...............................................................................................................................Pune-411042, Maharashtra, India ([email protected])....................................... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 mphibians often are susceptible to environmental influences The left eye of that individual was totally missing. I saw no Adue to distinctivePROFILE characteristics that include permeable skin, traumatic morphological aberrations, suggesting that the eye shell-less eggs, and a multifaceted. Kraig Adler: A Lifetimelife-cycle Promoting that Herpetology incorporates ................................................................................................ both Michael L. Treglia 234 aquatic and terrestrialCOMMENTARY phases (Hippargi et al. 2010). Deformities, however, are usually expressed. The Turtles only Have Been in Watchingthe presence Me ........................................................................................................................ of unique or Eric Gangloff 238 exceptional environmentalBOOK pollutants REVIEW or developmental disruptors, thereby rendering amphibians. Threatened potential Amphibians “bioindicators” of the World edited ofby environS.N. Stuart,- M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, mental health (Blaustein 1994).R. Berridge, Reports P. Ramani, on and amphibian B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. deformities Robert Powell 243 have been available since the 18th Century (Vallisneri 1733), yet CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 global scientific attention NATURAL has only HISTORY been focused RESEARCH on the REPORTS possibility: Summaries of of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 widespread declines in NEWBRIEFSamphibian populations............................................................................................................................... since the early 1980s ....................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 (Carey and Bryant 1995).FOCUS Concerns ON CONSERVATION about amphibians: A Project You further Can Support ............................................................................................... 252 heightened when Schmidt (1997) documented the 1995 Minnesota farm incident involving the discovery of widespread malformations in frogs. Few deformities have been recordedFront Cover. in ShannonIndian Plummer. amphib- Back Cover. Michael Kern ians. Gurushankara et al. (2007) Totatdescribed et velleseque morphological audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil abnormalities in natural populationserspienimus, of four quos common accullabo. Ilibus frog erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus species inhabiting the agro-ecosystemsaut dolor of theapicto central invere pe Westerndolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque Ghats. The morphological abnormalitiesmoditia erere recorded nonsedis ma sectiaturin that moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- study included abnormal limbs (hemimelea:ma derrovitae voluptam, short as quos tibia- tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as fibula; brachydactyly: short toe; ectrodactyly:accullabo. missing digit; ectromelea: incomplete limb with missing lower portion, and tumor on the femur), eyes (anophthalmia: missing eye and microphthalmea: small eye), and a bulging abdomen. Hippargi et al. (2010) observed developmental abnormali- ties in a wild-caught Asian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) from Nagpur, Maharashtra; Modak et al (2013) reported a Ferguson’s Toad (Duttaphrynus scaber) with abnormal toes; and Ganesh and Arumugam (2015) observed anophthalmia in a Sreeni’s Golden Frog (Indosylvirana sreeni) in the south- ern Eastern Ghats. During a field survey at 2026 h on 20 June 2016, I Fig. 1. An Amboli Toad (Xanthophryne tigerina) with anophthalmia (miss- observed an Amboli Toad (Xanthophryne tigerina) exhibiting ing left eye) from the vicinity of the village of Amboli in the northern anophthalmia (Fig. 1) in the vicinity of the village of Amboli. Western Ghats of India. Photographs by Kaka Bhise. Copyright © 2017. Anish Pardeshi. All rights reserved. 118 PARDESHI IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 24(2):118–119 • AUG 2017 loss was not predator-mediated, but from a malformation, Blaustein, A.R. 1994. Chicken Little or Nero’s fiddle? A perspective on declining i.e., anophthalmia. Amboli (15°57’N, 73°59’E) is located amphibian populations. Herpetologica 50: 85–97. Carey, C. and C.J. Bryant. 1995. Possible interrelations among environmental on the crestline of the northern Western Ghats, Sindhudurg toxicants, amphibian development, and decline of amphibian populations. District, in the state of Maharashtra, India (elevation 720 m). Environmental Health Perspectives 103(suppl. 4): 13–17. The average annual temperature is 23.9 °C and about 3,589 Ganesh, S.R. and M. Arumugam. 2015. Natural history and distribution notes on the Sreeni’s Golden Frog (Indosylvirana sreeni) in the southern Eastern Ghats, mm of precipitation falls annually. Vegetation around Amboli peninsular India. Alytes 32: 59–65. comprises semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests inter- Gurushankara, H.P., S.V. Krishnamurthy and V. Vasudev. 2007. Morphological mixed with some evergreen forest patches (Jog 2009). The abnormalities in natural populations of common frogs inhabiting agroecosys- tems of central Western Ghats. Applied Herpetology 4: 39–45. Amboli Toad is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Hippargi, R.V., L.J. Harkare, and A.D. Garg. 2010. Observations on developmen- Red List because it is known only from the type locality, tal abnormalities in a wild specimen of Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, (Amboli, Maharashtra state in the Western Ghats of India; 1799) from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. Frogleg 14: 16–20 Biju et al. 2009) and its area of occupancy is estimated to be IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2011.1). (http://www.iucnredlist.org). less than 10 km² (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2011. Xanthophryne tigerina. The IUCN 2011). Red List of Threatened Species 2011: e.T189700A8763964 (http://dx.doi. org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T189700A8763964.en). Jog, S.K. 2009. Sahyadris – flora and ethnobotany. Unpublished report, University Acknowledgements of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas, USA. I thank Kaka Bhise for providing photographs of the Amboli Modak, N., A. Padhye, and A. Bayani. 2013. A report of Duttaphrynus scaber Toad with anophthalmia. I also thank Rutuja Pardeshi for Schneider (1799) (Anura: Bufonidae), with abnormal toes, from Gavase, useful comments that improved the manuscript. Kolhapur District, Maharashtra. Ela Journal 2(3): 2–6. Schmidt, C.W. 1997. Amphibian deformities continue to puzzle researchers. Environmental Science & Technology 31: 324–326. Literature Cited Vallisneri, A. 1733. Opere fisico-mediche stampate e manoscritte del Kavalier Antonio Biju, S.D., I. Van Bocxlaer, V.B. Giri, S.P. Loader, and F. Bossuyt. 2009. Two Vallisneri raccolte da Antonio suo figliuolo, corredate duna Prefazione in genere new endemic genera and a new species of toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the sopra tutte, e d’una in particolare sopra il Vocabolario della Storia Naturale. Western Ghats of India. BMC Research Notes 2: 241. Tomo secondo. Appresso Sebastiano Coleti, Venezia. 119.