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We report the results of a herpetofaunal inventory between July, 2014 and March, 2017 of Parsa National Park that detected 51 herpetofaunal species. Three amphibians (Microhyla nilphamariensis, Sphaerotheca breviceps, and Uperodon taprobanicus), two Gecko species (Hemidactylus flaviviridis and H. frenatus), one Agamid (Sitana fusca), two Skinks (Eu...
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... boundary and Valmaki Tiger Reserve of India to the South. Examples are the Asian one-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) and Gaur (Bos gaurus). Understanding the potential to conserve many charismatic species, the Government of Nepal extended the area of the PNP in 2015 and the current area is 627 km 2 (Fig. 1). Besides its biodiversity conservation value, the PNP is also serving the vital needs of the large human population living south of the park by conserving water sources in the Siwalik hill and has reduced the soil erosion in the hill. The PNP includes mainly sub-tropical forests of the Siwalik and Bhabar physiographic regions of Parsa, ...
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... maculatus (Gray 1830): Calling males were frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Pro- gram office complex during the monsoon. This species was frequently observed on the office window and in the bathroom (Fig. 10). ...
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... cf. brookii (Gray 1845): Individuals with strongly keeled dorsal tubercles and tails with spines were recorded. Schleich and Kästle (2002) recorded H. brookii on buildings in Chitwan National Park. However, we recorded them in dead logs inside the park in Parsa National Park (Fig. 11). This species is regarded as a spe- cies complex and has been proposed for detailed molecu- lar studies to solve taxonomy of Nepalese populations (Rösler and Glaw 2010;Kathriner et al. 2014). Hemidactylus flaviviridis (Rüppell 1835): This is a com- mon house gecko in the study area. Frequently seen at houses, park guard posts and army ...
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... versicolor (Daudin 1802): This is the most common diurnal agamid distributed from below 100 m to 3,200 m in Nepal ( Schleich and Kästle 2002). The species was frequently observed in and out of the park boundary (Fig. 12). Sitana fusca (Schleich and Kästle 1998): This species was described from Bardibas, Mahottari district, Nepal ca. 100 km east of Parsa National Park. This is the first record of Sitana from Parsa National Park. This species was frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Program office complex, Bhedaha Khola, and Darau Khola. In ...
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... of Parsa National Park. This is the first record of Sitana from Parsa National Park. This species was frequently observed at NTNC-Parsa Conservation Program office complex, Bhedaha Khola, and Darau Khola. In June 2016, a gravid female was observed nest- ing in the office complex, and two hatchlings of same species were encountered in August 2016 (Fig. 13). ...
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... served inside the park basking in open grassland and on rocky substrates. Observed at Kamini Daha, Bhata, Ma- hadev Khola, Halkhoria Daha, Ghode Masan, Ramauli- Pratappur, Sikaribasb Bhedaha Khola, and Darau Khola. This is one of the most commonly observed skinks in Nepal. However, earlier researchers did not report it from Parsa National Park (Fig. 14). Eutropis dissimilis (Hallowell 1857): Recorded from Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Sikaribaas basking during winter. This species is rarely seen compared to its congenerics in Parsa National Park (Fig. 15). Eutropis macularia (Blyth 1853): Observed from Ka- mini Daha, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bhata, Nirmalbasti, Ramauli Pratappur, Mahadev Khola, ...
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... and Darau Khola. This is one of the most commonly observed skinks in Nepal. However, earlier researchers did not report it from Parsa National Park (Fig. 14). Eutropis dissimilis (Hallowell 1857): Recorded from Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Sikaribaas basking during winter. This species is rarely seen compared to its congenerics in Parsa National Park (Fig. 15). Eutropis macularia (Blyth 1853): Observed from Ka- mini Daha, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bhata, Nirmalbasti, Ramauli Pratappur, Mahadev Khola, and Ghode Masan (Fig. 16). ...
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... dissimilis (Hallowell 1857): Recorded from Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Sikaribaas basking during winter. This species is rarely seen compared to its congenerics in Parsa National Park (Fig. 15). Eutropis macularia (Blyth 1853): Observed from Ka- mini Daha, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Bhata, Nirmalbasti, Ramauli Pratappur, Mahadev Khola, and Ghode Masan (Fig. 16). ...
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... punctata (Gmelin 1799): Observed from Bha- ta, Adhabhar, Sikaribaas, and Shitalpur (Fig. 17). Sphenomorphus maculatus (Blyth 1853): This species was frequently observed in the foothills of Siwaliks in- side the park and found basking on the rocks of dry river beds (Fig. 18). This is the first record for Parsa National Park. ...
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... punctata (Gmelin 1799): Observed from Bha- ta, Adhabhar, Sikaribaas, and Shitalpur (Fig. 17). Sphenomorphus maculatus (Blyth 1853): This species was frequently observed in the foothills of Siwaliks in- side the park and found basking on the rocks of dry river beds (Fig. 18). This is the first record for Parsa National Park. ...
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... area, Bhata, Adhab- har-PNP office, Bhedaha Khola, Shitalpur, and Ramauli- Pratapur. They were frequently observed at human habi- tations at Amlekhgunj, and one adult was rescued from the Nepal Oil Corporation's office complex. The species is frequently seen in holes of the Sal (Shorea robusta) trees lying on the ground and on standing trees (Fig. 19). ...
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... bivittatus (Kuhl 1820): The python is the largest snake species in Nepal and it is distributed from Nep- alese Terai up to 2,800 m elevation in Nepal (Bhattarai et al. 2017). In the PNP, the species was observed from Bhata, Amlekhgunj-Hattisar, Halkhoria Daha, and Ra- mauli Pratapur (Fig. 21). The PNP has dry sub-tropical habitat and gets incidental fire. One injured python was found with wounds inside the park at Kamini Daha. ...
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Citations
... From Nepal two species were described S. swani from eastern Nepal and S. maskeyi from central Nepal (aerially around 300 km apart from the type localities) ( Figure 5) and these two species are resurrected from the synonymy by Dahanukar et al., (2017). With this backdrop the report of S. breviceps and S. rolandae from Nepal by Schleich and Rai (2012); S. breviceps by Bhattarai et al., (2017) from Beeshazar and S. breviceps by Bhattarai et al. (2018) from Parsa National Park could be erroneous (aerially 1800 km away from the type locality of S. breviceps and aerially 2000 km away from the type locality of S. rolandae). Further systematic sampling with genetic studies is warranted for the species of Sphaerotheca from Nepal. ...
Members of the genus Sphaerotheca are known to have the distribution in the low to mid elevation landscapes of South Asia. Most of the descriptions are either from homestead areas or from agro ecosystems except for a couple of species described from the mid elevated forest areas. The taxonomic uncertainties prevalent in the group was attended very recently, limiting the descriptions of five species to India, two species to Nepal and one each to Pakistan and Sri Lanka (one undescribed species from Myanmar). Here a new species assignable to the morphological ‘Breviceps group’ is described from the agro ecosystems of Jharkhand based on a combination of morphological, phylogenetic and geographical studies
using integrated taxonomic approach. Besides, the distribution status of Sphaerotheca pashchima is discussed and the possibility of a new species occurring in Myanmar is pointed out.
The herpetofauna of Nepal have been historically understudied, and although previous studies have reported on bioinventory surveys of the Kathmandu Valley, few have surveyed widely during the peak monsoon season. In addition, past studies largely neglected to survey intact forest habitats. Here we conduct a comprehensive field survey of the herpetofauna of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, with an emphasis on the surrounding foothills containing intact forest habitat. We record natural history and distribution data for seven species of amphibians and four species of reptiles. We also use mitochondrial sequence data to confirm the phylogenetic placement of two frog species, Megophrys (Xenophrys) parva and Duttaphrynus melanostictus. Using phylogenetic and morphological data we assign Megophrys parva from the Kathmandu Valley to Megophrys zhangi. We find that while this species shares a haplotype with its sister species, Megophrys monticola, morphological data align the individuals from the Kathmandu Valley with M. zhangi from Tibet. We find that M. zhangi exhibits no phylogenetic structure within the Kathmandu Valley, and wider sampling is needed throughout the Himalayas to determine its full range. These findings support the hypothesis that molecular sequence data will lead to the discovery of cryptic species in Nepal and facilitate the revision of species taxonomy.
