Lizards of the American Southwest - A Photographic Field Guide

A few days ago i received a package of books from Germany - among these books were my copy of the brand new Lizards of the American Southwest - a Photographic Field Guide edited by Lawrence L.C. Jones and R.E. Lovich.

This is perhaps the most outstanding book i have come across on the saurofauna of a single geographic area. The book covers the US states Arizona, California, Colorada, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas (west of the Pecos River) and Utah - and sections on the Mexican states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Sonora. This is an impressive area, and covers 96 species of lizards.

A great feature of this book, is that every single species, has its own account, and this account is authored by the best possible authority on this species - which makes this book much more trustworthy - over 60 authors have contributed - that's an amazing achivement..

The book is heavily covered with color photos of the single species, and the photos are of good to superb quality - and there is quite a lot of species i don't think i have ever seen color photos of. Each species account is approximately 4 pages, which is quite okay.

The books has 567 pages, which is quite a lot for a guide - probably not making it the perfect field guide - but as a photographic reference in the car - or on the shelves at home i would consider it a must have for anybody interested in the lizards of this area.

Its even very cheap considering its size and content - here in Europe it cost only 24,80 Euro - and in the US for 24,95 $

Besides of this book i must also make a small note on another book i just received, this is the classical monument on the herpetofauna of Baja California - the book Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California by L.L. Grismer from 2002. This is a MUST for anybody interested in the herpetofauna of Baja California.

Three old issues of Dactylus finally in my library :)

Thanx to herplit.com i managed to get my hands on issue 2, 3 and 4 from volume 1 of Dactylus - the journal by the late The International Gecko Society. I have been looking for old issues of this journal for quite some time, and still miss some - so if you have this journal and don't use it - please let me know :)

Issue 2 has an intersting reprinted translation of the original describtion of Phelsuma pusilla hallmani by Harald Meier (originally published in german in the DGHT publication Salamandra). Besides of this the issue contains articles on Dehydration and Calcium Depeltion by Jeff Nunan, a presentation of Stenodactylus arabicus by Rolf Leptien, a presentation of Holodactylus africanus, and an article on he reproduction of the genus Tarentola by Jim Zaworski.

Issue 3 has a long article about the problems with keeping and breeding Phelsuma standingi - its quite interesting to read James Zaworskis problems with this, by then, difficult species, which today is one of the most commonly breed Phelsumas. Next interesting article is by Hermann Seufer and deals with keeping and breeding of Teratoscincus microlepis. Robert Porter gives a review of the New Zealand Geckos species followed by an article by Philip Tremper on the Captive Maintenance of Rhacodactylus sarasinorum. Aristellinger lar is presented by Robert Powell and finally C.M. Knight gives a presentation of the tail stridulation behavior in Teratoscincus scincus.

Issue 4 presents Aristelliger georgensis by Walter Schmidt - then comes an interesting note by Steven C. Anderson on the cohabitation of Teratoscincus scincus, bedriagai and microlepis in Eastern Iran, within an area of 25 meters radius - all on the same substrate - quite interesting as you would think that these species were competing with each other, and would have found different habitats.. R. Michael Burger writes about the keeping and reproduction of Uroplatus henkeli, followed by a presentation of Phelsuma guentheri by Nick Garbutt. The next article by F.W. Henkel is perhaps the most interesting considering the history - as it is a presentation of all the species of Rhacodactylus then known. This was published BEFORE ciliatus were refound - and therefore only shows a preserved specimen of this interesting species, little did he know, that just a year or two later, he would be one of the first to rediscover this species. Cyrtodactylus collegalensis and Pristurus rupestris are portraited by Ganesh Prasanna and Rolf Leptien respectively and the issue ends with a note by Gavin Bedford and Keith Christian abou the egg size of Nephrurus asper (amyae?)

New book on lizards from Central Argentina

I just paged through my copy of Lagartos del Centro de la Argentina by M.R. Cabrera. I must admit that i don't understand the language, but i bought it mainly because i find it interesting to have guides to the reptiles of areas around the world, and i don't at the moment have any reference works in my library about the Argentine lizard fauna.

The book is a little guide with 119 pages - published in 2009. Its not particularly expensive, but in my opinion the printing is also were cheap - the pictures are of moderate to lousy in quality - which is a shame, as i would have loved to see some good photos of the animals of the area. The pictures 97 color photos in the book is placed 3-4 together on the few color plates in the book - it would have been nice to have the pictures together with the species describtion instead.

That said, its still nice to have a guide with keys to the 32 species of lizards and amphisbaenians of the region. 12 species of Iguanids, 3 species of Geckos, 4 species of Amphisbaenids, 2 species of Gymnophthalmids, 8 species of Teids, 1 species of scinc and 2 species of Anguids are known from this region - and a few of them i had not seen pictures of before.

Common Kingsnakes - A Natural History of Lampropeltis getula by Brian Hubbs

I just received my copy of Brian Hubbs fantastic new book titled Common Kingsnakes - A Natural Hstory of Lampropeltis getula. This is a monument publication on a single species - and is highly recommended to everybody with the slightest of interest in the getula complex (see earlier note on the split of getula into 5 seperate species - the split was made after this book was published).

I'm highly impressed by the amount of data in this publication - and i can't even imagine how much work Brian have put into this compilation. Each former subspecies has its own chapter, with all information on the particular subspecies, and with massive illustrations on the variation within the subspecies. One of the info's that surpriced me, was the photo of a juvenile nigrita from Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, shoing typical pattern known from splendida juvies - very interesting - especially as the new studies earlier mentioned on my blog, have shown that nigrita should be considered part of californiae and not splendida as suspected by most people i know of having keept nigrita and splendida in captivity.

I few years back i keept and breed a species of snake, that took me 2-3 years to get the real name tag for - these were a special form of californiae local, probably from Baja California - this form i have now learned is called the nitida-form of californiae. To my knowledge this is the first book were this form is actually illustrated.

Info:
Hubbs, B. 2009. Common Kingsnakes - A Natural History of Lampropeltis getula. Tricolor Books, 412 pp. $ 60, Euro 58

If you live in Denmark and is interested - please contact me

Trial issue of Entomologische Zeitschrift received

This is not a herpetological subject, but i find it worth mentioning anyway (as some of you might know i'm also interested in entomology on a amateur basis).

Looking through the page of the Ulmer Verlag a few weeks ago, i came across the journal Entomologische Zeitschrift. It seemed to be an interesting journal, so i ordered a free trial copy - and this i received today.

The journal is quite interesting, but maybe a bit to scientific for my present interest in entomology - anybody seriously interested in entomology would without a doubt find this journal very interesting - and i highly recommend at least ordering the free trial issue through www.ezib.de.

Regarding the current issue - its content is mainly on coleopteras, but also contains articles on diptera and lepidoptera - as well as a few book reviews.

I will no go into depth with the articles in the issue, but just mention, that the following new taxa are described in this issue.

(Coleoptera: Megalopodidae, Zeugophorinae)
Zeugophora (Pedrillia) bistriolata Schöller, 2009 - New Caledonia
Zeugophora (Pedrilla) daccordii Schöller, 2009 - New Caledonia

(Diptera: Sciaridae)
Bradysia iberiana Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Bradysia iberica Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Bradysia perfecta Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Bradysia regulariformis Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Bradysia varianta Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Cratyna continuata Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Lycoriella complexa Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Peyerimhoffia macera Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain
Epidapus subspinosulus Rudzinski & Baumjohann, 2009 - Spain

(Lepidoptera: Arctiidae, Arctiinae, Arctiini)
Pseudophragmatobia Krüger, 2009 (new genus - made for the South African lepidopteran species Arctia parvula, which is to be known as Pseudophragmatobia parvula new comb.)
Pseudophragmatobia limbata Krüger, 2009 - Lesotho
Pseudophragmatobia cinnamomea Krüger, 2009 - South Africa
Pseudophragmatobia salmo Krüger, 2009 - South Africa
Pseudophragmatobia perpunctata Krüger, 2009 - South Africa
Pseudophragmatobia paucirubra Krüger, 2009 - South Africa
Pseudophragmatobia unicolor Krüger, 2009 - South Africa

Python molurus split and new subspecies

The taxonomy of the burmese python have been quite stable for quite a lot of years - only fuss have been about the validity of the Sri Lanka form pimbura Deraniyagala, 1945, which it seems most scientists today agree on being just a variation of the typeform (molurus).

A new study by Jacobs, Auliya and Böhme (2009), focusing on the taxonomy of bivittatus, conclude, based on behaviour and morphology and the fact that bivittatus populations are found isolated within the distribution of typical molurus, without any evidence of hybridizing, that bivittatus is a seperate species from molurus.

Besides of this, the Sulawesi form of burmese python, is shown to be a dwarf form, rarely exciding 200 cm, isolated from other bivittatus geographically, and differentiated by egg size and juvenile size, less than half the size of typical bivittatus. This form is described as a new subspecies - Python bivittatus progschai
The Burmese python taxonomy therefore are as follows.

• Python bivittatus bivittatus (Kuhl, 1820) - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam
• Python bivittatus progschai Jacobs, Auliya & Böhme, 2009 - Sulawesi
• Python molurus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Source: Jacobs, H.J., M. Auliya & W. Böhme. 2009. Zur Taxonomie des Dunklen Tigerpythons, Python molurus bivittatus Kuhl, 1820, speziell der Population von Sulawesi. Sauria, 31(3): 5-16.

Lampropeltis getula split into five species

A couple of recent publications by Pyron and Burbrink have evaluated the status of the Lampropeltis getula complex - and the results are very interesting.

The complex is split into 5 seperate species - and all other subspecies are sunk into synonomy of these. In my opinion the study results seems to be well argumentet and i think we have to get used to this new taxonomy of this complex well known to many hobbyists.

The complex is split into the following five valid species:

• Lampropeltis californiae Blainville, 1835 (including the former subspecies nigrita and yumensis)
• Lampropeltis getula (Linnaeus, 1766) (including the former subspecies goini, floridana, brooksi, meansi and sticticeps)
• Lampropeltis holbrooki Stejneger, 1903
• Lampropeltis nigra (Yarrow, 1882)
• Lampropeltis splendida (Baird & Girard, 1853)

Sources:
Pyron, R.A. & F.T. Burbrink. 2009. Lineage diversification in a widespread species: roles for niche divergence and conservatism in the common kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula. Mol. Ecol., 18: 3443-3457.

Pyron, R.A. & F.T. Burbrink. 2009. Systematics of the Common Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula; Serpentes: Colubridae) and the burden of heritage in taxonomy. Zootaxa, 2241: 22-32.