Herpetozoa

New records of species distribution help advance our understanding of species biogeographical dynamics and, potentially, local adaptations. Here, we report for the first time the …

We present information on the occurrence of colubrid vine snakes (Oxybelis) and dipsadid sharpnose snakes (Xenoxybelis) from the lowlands of Bolivia. These genera have been poorly…

Insular organisms typically evolve in closed, isolated systems; thus, changes caused by introduced species can drastically affect their ecology. Isle Royale National Park (Michiga…

Achalinus sheni Ma, Xu, Qi, Wang, Tang, Huang & Jiang, 2023 was originally described based on only male specimens from Lianyuan City and Nanyue District, Hunan, China. So far, no …

Garter snakes in the genus Thamnophis from Mexico have a long and convoluted taxonomic history. From 2015 to 2022, we conducted a comprehensive sampling of Mexican Thamnophis spec…

We report the first record of Amolops truongi Pham, Pham, Ngo, Sung, Ziegler & Le, 2023 from China, based on four specimens collected in Yunnan Huanglianshan National Nature Reser…

Melanophryniscus fulvoguttatus is a small toad that inhabits the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, and humid Chaco of South America. Due to its aposematic coloration and behavior, it is a…

The alpine newt is an opportunistic predator whose diet consists predominantly of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates with Crustacea, Plecoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Isopoda an…

The Napo Treefrog Rhacophorus napoensis was described based on five male specimens from Napo County, Baise City, Guangxi Autonomous Region, China. Herein, we report on new finding…

The Paddy frog species Micryletta hekouensis was described based on only two specimens from Nanxi Village, Nanxi Town, Hekou County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Her…

Current knowledge of the vertical distribution of Triturus macedonicus places the species at altitudes up to 2140 m. Herein, we report its presence in the alpine lake Gistova at 2…

The genus Ablepharus Lichtenstein, 1823 contains the common snake-eyed skinks, distributed from southern Europe and northern Africa to eastern Asia. Ablepharus alaicus Elpatjevsky…

Kleptoparasitism, or food theft, is seldom reported in wild populations of snakes. Here, we describe as case where two Red-tailed Coral Snakes, Micrurus mipartitus, were observed …

The Urartian rat snake, Elaphe urartica Jablonski, Kukushkin, Avcı, Bunyatova, Ilgaz, Tuniyev & Jandzik, 2019, is a recently described species within the genus Elaphe, found in ea…

Cyrtodactylus dianxiensis Liu & Rao, 2021 was originally described based on only two adult male specimens from Tongbiguan Nature Reserve, Dehong Autonomous Prefecture, western Yun…

Molecular studies have outlined several mitochondrial lineages of Vipera ammodytes, but the limits of their distribution ranges remain unclear due to limited sampling throughout t…

For 29 consecutive years, the populations of three species of brown frogs, Rana arvalis, R. dalmatina and R. temporaria, were monitored in an open area in South Zealand, Denmark, …

The herpetofauna of Greek islands is fairly well known. However, new records enhance our knowledge of the insular distribution of reptiles and amphibians. Here, we report a new ad…

One specimen of frog was collected from Mohan Town, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, which is the type locality of Rana bannanica Rao & Yang, 1997,…

Female reproductive effort is defined as the proportion of total energy or resources devoted to reproduction. In reptiles, there is frequently high inter- and intra-population var…

In animals, migration is an evolutionary adaptation to manage seasonally varying habitats. Often driven by climatic changes or resource availability, amphibians then migrate from …

Rhacophorus tuberculatus and Rhacophorus verrucopus are two morphologically similar species described in 1871 and 1983 respectively. Their taxonomic distinctiveness has been quest…

Telmatobufo venustus was one of the rarest endemic amphibians of Chile until 2020. Prior to that year, this species had been known in four localities, three of them with uncertain…

The Malayan Banded Wolf Snake Lycodon subcinctus Boie, 1827 once included three subspecies, namely L. s. subcinctus Boie, 1827, L. s. sealei Leviton, 1955, and L. s. maculatus (Co…

The taxonomic status of Gloydius shedaoensis qianshanensis Li, 1999 has long been debated due to its narrow distribution range, low population, loss of type specimens, and lack of…

Sexual head dimorphism is a condition where head morphology of male and female of the same species differ, which provides an additional way to recognise sex for species identifica…

Determining the dietary niche is an essential part of any conservation strategy, and for modeling the community responses to climate change. DNA metabarcoding methods are revoluti…

In this study, the advertisement calls of Leptobrachella suiyangensis and Leptobrachella bashaensis are described. The advertisement call of L. suiyangensis includes simple and co…

The expanded description of Hemiphyllodactylus hongkongensis Sung, Lee, NG, Zhang & Yang, 2018 is provided based on four newly collected specimens from eastern Guangdong Province,…

An integrative taxonomic analysis combining molecular and morphological lines of evidence revealed a new cryptic species in the Tylototriton verrucosus species group from Manipur,…

From July to October 2015, a study was conducted on the water monitors (Varanus salvator macromaculatus) at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 90 monitors were captured, m…

We collected nine specimens of Odorrana Fei, Ye & Huang, 1990 from Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, which is close to the type locality of O. heatwolei (Stuart & …

Pelophylax plancyi (Lataste, 1880), Pelophylax chosenicus (Okada, 1931) and Pelophylax hubeiensis (Fei & Ye, 1982) were described chronologically from East Asia. The three species…

Atlantolacerta andreanskyi (Werner, 1929) is an endemic lizard from the High Atlas Mountains region of Morocco. A previous molecular assessment of this species using mitochondrial…

We describe the advertisement call of the Nanling horned frog, Boulenophrys nanlingensis for the first time, based on recordings obtained from four individuals. One of these indiv…

We describe a new species of Eleutherodactylus (subgenus Syrrhophus) from Guerrero, Mexico, based on morphological and molecular data, as well as advertisement call analysis. Eleu…

Aggregations (e.g. group basking) by snakes are usually limited to specific life cycle phases (e.g. mating) or are a consequence of drastic environmental changes (e.g. habitat des…

In this study we describe for the first time the calls of Pristimantis galdi and Pristimantis katoptroides. Recordings were obtained in Sangay National Park, Ecuador. We highlight…

We report the first record of Hoplobatrachus litoralis Hasan, Kuramoto, Islam, Alam, Khan & Sumida, 2012 from China based on seven specimens from Baoshan City, western Yunnan. Mor…

We describe a new saxicolous species of Lepidophyma from the Sierra Madre Oriental, in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico and provide morphological and molecular data to support the …

Varanus bangonorum, the Bangon Monitor Lizard, is one of eleven Varanidae species endemic to the Philippines; its occurrence is restricted to dwindling habitats on the islands of …

The anomaly P is a widespread morphological anomaly, which occurs in some groups of amphibians, caused by the trematode parasite Strigea robusta (Digenea: Strigeidae). This anomal…

Animal colouration has a significant ecological role in defence, reproduction, and thermoregulation. In the case of melanism, it is a complex topic. Besides potential disadvantage…

Urban habitats receive an increasing number of species due to anthropogenic activities, mainly transportations. Here, we report a new addition to the herpetofauna of Athens (Greec…

Amolops putaoensis is a recently described torrent frog species from A. monticola group that is known only from its type locality, northern Myanmar. We compared morphology and mit…

When several male snakes dispute over one female in the breeding season, two major male-male rivalries are known to occur: male-male combat and multimale breeding aggregation. The…

The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843 is represented in Honduras by a single species, Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845. This canopy dweller is distributed in the lowland moi…

We describe the unusual case of erythrism in the Eastern Grass Snake, Natrix natrix. This colour morph is very rare and has not been reported in the literature before. Despite hav…

Podarcis wall lizards mainly feed on coleopterans, orthopterans, arachnids, and other small invertebrates. However, Aegean wall lizards, Podarcis erhardii, are widely distributed …

We report the first country record of Theloderma khoii Ninh, Nguyen, Nguyen, Hoang, Siliyavong, Nguyen, Le, Le & Ziegler, 2022 from China based on a specimen collected from Wensha…