Allen Allison

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum

Sunda-Papuan keelback snakes (Serpentes: Natricidae: Tropidonophis Jan 1863) include 20 species distributed from the Philippines south-east through the Moluccas to New Guinea and Australia. Diversity of this insular snake lineage peaks on the island of New Guinea. Previous phylogenetic studies incorporating Tropidonophis have been limited to multi-...

Skinks are the most diverse component of the reptile fauna in the mountains of New Guinea and many seemingly specialised high-elevation species remain undescribed. Here we describe two spectacular new gold-patterned skinks in the montane-specialist genus Papuascincus. Both species can be diagnosed from all congeners by their distinctive colouration...

Environmental factors, such as temperature, precipitation, and elevation, explain most of the variation in species richness at the global scale. Nevertheless, richness patterns may have different drivers across taxa and regions. To date, a comprehensive global examination of how various factors such as climate or topography drive patterns of specie...

Context. Skinks comprise the dominant component of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna in Oceania, New Guinea, and Eastern Wallacea (ONGEW). However, knowledge of their diversity is incomplete, and their conservation needs are poorly understood. Aims. To explore the diversity and threat status of the skinks of ONGEW and identify knowledge gaps and con...

Identifying hotspots of biological diversity is a key step in conservation prioritisation. Melanesia—centred on the vast island of New Guinea—is increasingly recognised for its exceptionally species-rich and endemic biota. Here we show that Melanesia has the world’s most diverse insular amphibian fauna, with over 7% of recognised global frog specie...

Comprehensive assessments of species’ extinction risks have documented the extinction crisis and underpinned strategies for reducing those risks. Global assessments reveal that, among tetrapods, 40.7% of amphibians, 25.4% of mammals and 13.6% of birds are threatened with extinction. Because global assessments have been lacking, reptiles have been o...

Comprehensive assessments of species’ extinction risks have documented the extinction crisis and underpinned strategies for reducing those risks. Global assessments reveal that, among tetrapods, 40.7% of amphibians, 25.4% of mammals and 13.6% of birds are threatened with extinction. Because global assessments have been lacking, reptiles have been o...

IUCN Red List assessment

The skink genus Lobulia is endemic to New Guinea, the largest and highest tropical island in the world. Lobulia and its related genera represent an important component of the montane herpetofauna of New Guinea, but it remains understudied and poorly known. We here provide the first, large-scale, systematic revision of Lobulia, using molecular phylo...

available at https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/200972722/1533318

Adaptations for efficient performance are expected to shape animal morphology based on selection for microhabitat use and ecological forces. The presence of competitor species is predicted to cause niches to contract and enhance trait divergence. Therefore, increased species richness is expected to lead to greater trait divergence, and to result in...

New Guinea, the world's largest and highest tropical island, has a rich but poorly known biota. Papuascincus is a genus of skinks endemic to New Guinea's mountain regions, comprising two wide-ranging species and two species known only from their type series. The phylogeny of the genus has never been examined and the relationships among its species...

Aim: Variation in body size across animal species underlies most ecological and evolutionary processes shaping local‐ and large‐scale patterns of biodiversity. For well over a century, climatic factors have been regarded as primary sources of natural selection on animal body size, and hypotheses such as Bergmann's rule (the increase of body size wi...

Regions with complex geological histories present a major challenge for scientists studying the processes that have shaped their biotas. The history of the vast and biologically rich tropical island of New Guinea is particularly complex and poorly resolved. Competing geological models propose New Guinea emerged as a substantial landmass either duri...

p>In the version of this Article originally published, grant no. 2015/20215-7 for C.N. was omitted from the Acknowledgements section. This has now been corrected in all versions of the Article.</p

Aim: Small geographic ranges make species especially prone to extinction from anthropogenic disturbances or natural stochastic events. We assemble and analyse a comprehensive dataset of all the world's lizard species and identify the species with the smallest ranges—those known only from their type localities. We compare them to wide-ranging specie...

The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented th...

In this Article originally published, owing to a technical error, the author ‘Laurent Chirio’ was mistakenly designated as a corresponding author in the HTML version, the PDF was correct. This error has now been corrected in the HTML version. Further, in Supplementary Table 3, the authors misspelt the surname of ‘Danny Meirte’; this file has now be...

Asterophryinae is a large monophyletic subfamily of Anurans containing over 300 species distributed across one of the world's most geologically active areas -- New Guinea and its satellite islands, Australia and the Philippines. The tremendous ecological and morphological diversity of this clade, with apparent specializations for burrowing, terrest...

Aims To examine species richness patterns in Papua New Guinea's terrestrial vertebrates and test for geographical congruence between the four classes, and between lizard and snake subgroups. To assess the environmental correlates of Papua New Guinean terrestrial‐vertebrate richness, and contrast effects of varying analytical resolution and correcti...

As an international group of taxonomists who study a range of taxa, we consider that you misconstrued the case of a new insect species that was described on the basis of photographs (see Nature 535, 323–324; 2016). The species was described without a preserved type specimen, the individuals having escaped before preservation (S. A. Marshall and N....

In a recent Oryx publication, Fisher & Ineich (2012) report the extinction of Emoia impar (azure-tailed skink) in the Hawaiian Islands, we report its rediscovery on Moloka‘i where it has not been documented since the late 1800’s.

Effective and targeted conservation action requires detailed information about species, their distribution, systematics and ecology as well as the distribution of threat processes which affect them. Knowledge of reptilian diversity remains surprisingly disparate, and innovative means of gaining rapid insight into the status of reptiles are needed i...

Living vertebrates vary drastically in body size, yet few taxa reach the extremely minute size of some frogs and teleost fish. Here we describe two new species of diminutive terrestrial frogs from the megadiverse hotspot island of New Guinea, one of which represents the smallest known vertebrate species, attaining an average body size of only 7.7 m...

Samples included in molecular phylogenetic analyses. Specimens and Genbank accession numbers for samples used in phylogenetic analyses. Bolded lettering indicates sequences collected for this study. (PDF)

Maximum likelihood phylogeny of asterophryine frogs. A. Full phylogeny (not trimmed to single exemplar per clade) of asterophryine frogs based on maximum likelihood analysis of 925 bp of 12S and 16S rDNA sequences. Numbers on branches indicate branch support assessed by 1000 bootstrap pseudoreplicates, followed by Bayesian posterior probability. As...

Three experiments were conducted in outdoor arenas with a small, New Guinea skink, Emoia physicae, to examine inter- and intra-sexual interactions. There were statistically significant differences in behaviour between adult males and adult females and in interactions within the sexes. Within sexes, larger lizards dominated smaller ones. Females dom...

The Papuan region, comprising New Guinea and nearby islands, has a complex geological history that has fostered high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Unfortunately, much of this diversity remains undocumented. We examine the evolutionary relationships of the venomous snake genus Aspidomorphus (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae), a Papuan endemic, and docu...

We describe a new species of scandent/arboreal frog from Sudest Island, Louisiade Archipelago, off the southeastern tip of New Guinea that exhibits a remarkable ontogenetic change In color pattern. Juveniles are shiny black with lemon-yellow spots; adults are uniform peach with bright blue eyes. We detail the ontogenetic changes In color-pattern el...

We describe from the Muller Range of New Guinea three new species of microhylid frogs, one each in the genera Albericus, Cophixalus, and Oreophryne. The new Albericus is unique in its combination of having an infrequent peeping call, oblique lores, wide snout and finger discs, and distinct tympanum. The new Cophixalus is distinguished by its combin...

We describe a new species of Austrochaperina from the Bewani Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea. The new species is a member of Zweifel's (2000) “Large” group of Austrochaperina closely related to A. hooglandi, from which it differs in size, color pattern, call parameters, and ecology. It differs from its other 23 congeners in a variety of...

We describe nine new species of the microhylid frog genus Cophixalus from the Southeastern Peninsula and adjacent islands of Papua New Guinea. All but one of the new species are small – adult males attain 20 mm in only one of the new forms. None of the new species has finger discs consistently larger than toe discs, a character state sometimes clai...

The Papuan frog fauna, which includes more than 360 named species, is poorly known, with many species awaiting description and many more undoubtedly undiscovered because much of the region has been poorly surveyed. Many of the undescribed species in hand belong to taxonomically difficult genera, but several are uncontroversially distinctive and una...

FIGURE 1. Photos in life of (A) holotype of Cophixalus cupricarenus (BPBM 20223), (B) paratype of Cophixalus cupricarenus (BPBM 20208), (C) paratype of Cophixalus kethuk (BPBM 20202), (D) paratype of Cophixalus iovaorum (BPBM 19280), (E) paratype of Cophixalus desticans (BPBM 15703), and (F) paratype of Cophixalus desticans (BPBM 16434).

FIGURE 2. Photos in life of (A) holotype of Cophixalus melanops (BPBM 20198), (B) paratype of Cophixalus melanops (BPBM 20197), (C) holotype of Cophixalus linnaeus (BPBM 31836), (D) paratype of Cophixalus phaeobalius (BPBM 26194), (E) paratype of Cophixalus tomaiodactylus (BPBM 26182), and (F) holotype of Cophixalus tomaiodactylus (BPBM 26185).

FIGURE 3. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of the first nine notes of a 40 - note call of paratype of Cophixalus cupricarenus (BPBM 20219) recorded by F. Kraus at Cheme, Rossel Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, at 2000 h, 4 May 2004. Air temperature 27.8 ° C.

FIGURE 5. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of call “ A ” (see Table 3) of holotype of Cophixalus kethuk (BPBM 20203) recorded by F. Kraus along the Rupu River, 280 m elevation, Rossel Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, at 1715 h, 15 May 2004. Air temperature 25.7 ° C. The call was recorded on a Sony MDSJE 480 minidis...

FIGURE 6. Internote duration of call “ D ” (see Table 3) recorded from the holotype of Cophixalus kethuk (BPBM 20203).

FIGURE 13. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of the call “ F ” (see Table 11) of holotype of Cophixalus linnaeus (BPBM 31836) recorded by A. Allison from Cliffside Camp, Kamiali Wildlife Management Area, 1.3 km N and 6.2 km W of Cape Dinga, 520 m elevation, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, at 1820 h, 9 July 2008. Air temperatu...

FIGURE 14. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of the call “ D ” (see Table 12) of paratype of Cophixalus phaeobalius (BPBM 26194) recorded by A. Allison at “ Top Camp ”, Kamiali Wildlife Management Area, 3 km N and 12.9 km W of Cape Dinga, 1520 m elevation, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, at 2200 h on 6 April 2005. Air tempera...

FIGURE 15. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of call “ O ” (see Table 13) of holotype of Cophixalus tomaiodactylus (BPBM 26185) recorded by A. Allison at “ Pine Tree Camp ”, Kamiali Wildlife Management Area, 2.6 km N and 9.3 km W of Cape Dinga, 7.28188171 ºS, 147.065022341 ºE, 900 m elevation, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea,...

FIGURE 10. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of call “ A ” (see Table 7) of holotype of Cophixalus desticans (BPBM 16436) recorded by F. Kraus at Saidowai, 5 m elevation, Normanby Island, D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea on 1 October 2002. Time was not noted; air temperature 24.3 ° C.

FIGURE 7. Map showing known distributions for Cophixalus interruptus (circle), C. kethuk (inverted triangles), C. linnaeus (star), and C. phaeobalius (square). Filled symbols are type localities; open symbols are additional localities, as relevant.

FIGURE 8. Complete call sequence of Call “ B ” (see Table 5) from holotype of Cophixalus iovaorum (BPBM 19287) recorded at Siruohu, W slope Mt. Obree, 1560 m elevation, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, at 1910 h on 29 January 2004. Air temperature 18.3 ° C.

FIGURE 9. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of call “ A ” (see Table 5) of holotype of Cophixalus iovaorum (BPBM 19287) recorded by F. Kraus at Siruohu, W slope Mt. Obree, 1560 m elevation, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, at 1910 h, 29 January 2004. Air temperature 18.3 ° C.

FIGURE 12. (A) Waveform, (B) power spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of the call of holotype of Cophixalus interruptus (BPBM 11523) recorded by A. Allison in the hills above Oomsis Forestry Station, 400 m elevation, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea, at 2050 h, 3 March 1988. Air temperature 25.2 ° C.

FIGURE 4. Map showing known distributions for Cophixalus cupricarenus (inverted triangles), C. desticans (circles), C. iovaorum (triangle), C. melanops (star), and C. tomaiodactylus (squares). Filled symbols are type localities; open symbols are additional localities, as relevant.

FIGURE 11. (A) Dorsal, and (B) lateral view of holotype of Cophixalus interruptus (BPBM 11523).

Amphibians are facing an extinction crisis, but getting to the facts has been difficult. Threatened Amphibians of the World is a visual journey through the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of the world's 6,000 known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. All ~1,900 species known to be threatened with ext...

We provide a taxonomic diagnosis and discussion of the frogs of the Rana papua group within Milne Bay Province, the southeasternmost extent of Papua New Guinea and associated offshore islands. Six members of the R. papua species group occur in the province. We rediagnose R. grisea, known with certainty only from the type locality in Papua Province,...

We redescribe the poorly known Platymantis akarithymus and describe two new species of this terrestrial frog genus from the Nakanai Mts. of eastern New Britain Island. All are small inhabitants of the leaf litter. Discovery of the two new species increases the known diversity of the genus on New Britain to 15 species, ten of which we routinely foun...

We describe a new gecko, Cyrtodactylus murua, from Woodlark Island, off the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea. The new species differs from all Papuan congeners except C. louisiadensis (de Vis) and C. aaroni Günther & Rösler in having a single row of enlarged subcaudal scales. From C. louisiadensis, the new species is easily distinguished by its...

Recent rapid-assessment surveys in western New Guinea have provided well-documented voucher specimens that show greater speciation within the Carlia fusca complex in this area than indicated by the examination of older museum specimens. Variation in the morphometric and scalation traits of these new species does not differ greatly from other fusca...

We describe three new species of a cryptic species complex of Cophixalus from southeastern New Guinea and adjacent islands. They are readily distinguished from all other Papuan species by their small size, presence of vocal slits in mates, absence of toe webbing, relatively long legs, short snouts, and vertical lores. Their calls consist of a serie...

Four new species of scincid lizards in the genus Lobulia are described from high elevations (≥2350 m) in New Guinea. Some of the features that may permit these skinks to live at high elevation are: dark color pattern, “tinted” lower eyelids and live-bearing reproductive mode. All of the species may be threatened by global climate warming. The gener...

We describe a new species of Albericus from Mt. Shungol in the Herzog Mountains at the north end of the Owen Stanley terrane of Papua New Guinea. The new species differs from all other known species of the genus in its rapid peeping call and in having the tympana hidden in males. It can be further distinguished from particular congeners in a variet...

We describe a new species of Albericus from the northern slope of Mt. Simpson, in the Owen Stanley range of southeastern Papua New Guinea. The new species differs from all other known species of the genus in having pale blue or pale green dorsal coloration with red punctations (light metallic green and burnt-orange in preservative). It is further d...

We describe a new species of natricine snake of the genus Tropidonophis from the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, off the southeastern peninsula of New Guinea. The new species is large, with 15 unreduced scale rows, a high ventral and low subcaudal scale count, and a distinctive color pattern of dark mid-dorsal bands and offset lateral blotches on a yellow...

We describe two new species of lowland Litoria from Normanby Island, off the southeastern tip of New Guinea. One new species is a medium-sized member of the Litoria thesaurensis species group and differs from the other three members of that group in having a combination of white bones, extensive webbing, a loud quacking call, and a uniformly yellow...

We describe a new species of riparian Litoria from the Cloudy Mountains of southeastern Papua New Guinea. The new species is a member of the Litoria nigropunctata species group and differs from other members of that group in its combination of small size, blunt snout, head wider than long, no vomerine teeth, fingers one-third webbed, red iris, and...

Biological surveys have provided a wealth of data to advance the understanding, use and management of natural resources and were important in the establishment and development of museums of natural history. Museums, which hold billions of specimens worldwide, are now important repositories of biodiversity data. In the Pacific, the Bishop Museum has...

We describe a new species of fossorial frog, Xenorhina adisca, from the Sudirman Mountains of western New Guinea. The new species is distinguished from its congeners in lacking discs on fingers and toes, having moderately long legs, large eyes, and a long, pointed snout, and having a red venter with black “pants” markings under the groin. It is cur...

We describe a new species of Austrochaperina from the Bewani Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea. The new species is a member of Zweifel’s (2000) ‘‘Large’’ group of Austrochaperina closely related to A. hooglandi, from which it differs in size, color pattern, call parameters, and ecology. It differs from its other 23 congeners in a variety o...

We describe a new species of Callulops from the vicinity of Crater Mountain Biological Station in south-central Papua New Guinea. The species may be distinguished from its congeners by its unique dorsal color pattern, moderately expanded digital disks bearing circummarginal grooves, smooth skin, relatively long legs, and relatively short snout. The...

We describe a new species of Xenobatraclus from the Bewani and Hunstein Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea. It is closely similar to X. rostratus and X. subcrocreus, but it keys out to the X. rostratus species group as defined by Blum and Menzies. It difIers from the former species in body size, relative leg length, and advertisement call....

We review the taxonomic history and status of the poorly known endemic New Guinea microhylid Choerophryne. Available material indicates at least three species belong to this genus: C. rostellifer (Wandolleck); C. proboscidea, van Kampen, resurrected from the synonymy of C. rostellifer; and a new species. Diagnostic features and detailed description...

We review the ecology and specialized methods required for studying arboreal mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and use faunal checklists from 12 tropical wet forest sites and an analysis of all articles published during the past ten years in 14 major journals to assess current knowledge and general research trends for these groups. The perce...

We describe a new species of Platymantis from the Weitin River Valley on the southern tip of New Ireland in the southwest Pacific, bringing to seven the number of native frogs known from that island. We also briefly report on the ecology of the four species of Platymantis occurring on New Ireland and comment on the biogeography of the frog fauna.

We describe a new species of Platymantis from the Weitin River Valley on the southern tip of New Ireland in the SW Pacific, bringing to seven the number of native frogs known from that island. We also briefly report on the ecology of the four species of Platymantis occurring on New Ireland and comment on the biogeography of the frog fauna.

We describe two new species of Cophixalus from the north coast ranges of Papua New Guinea. One of the species has a reduced first finger lacking a disc and is clearly aligned with C. shellyi, C. ateles, and C. pipilans. The other species also has a reduced first finger but retains a disc on that digit Its relationships within the genus are less cle...

To elucidate the potential of electrophoretic analysis for understanding relationships among microhylid frogs in Papua New Guinea, an allozyme analysis was conducted. A total of 119 individuals from nine species of Cophixalus, two species of Sphenophryne and one species of Barygenys, all of which belong to the family Microhylidae, were studied. Fou...

We describe a new species of Xenorhina from the Bewani and Hunstein Mountains of northwest Papua New Guinea. Unlike the six currently recognized species of Xenorhina which inhabit leaf litter on the forest floor, the new species is remarkable in being arboreal. It differs from its congeners in possessing greatly expanded terminal discs on the finge...

To elucidate the evolutionary relationships of Papua New Guinean hylid frogs, we conducted an allozyme analysis using a total of 70 individuals from nine species of Litoria and two species of Nyctimystes. Fourteen enzymes extracted from skeletal muscles and livers were analyzed by starch-gel electrophoresis. These enzymes were encoded by genes at 2...

The assumptions on the host specificity of beetles that led Terry Erwin to suggest that there may be over 30 million arthropod species were tested for 10 species of trees and their insect associates at a rainforest site in Papua New Guinea. The data included 391 species and 4696 individuals of herbivorous beetles collected during a one year period...

Canopy fogging with a pyrethrum-based insecticide was used in a comparative study of the structure and diversity of insect communities in two genera of oak trees (family Fagaceae) at study sites of 500, 1200-1400 and 2000-2200 m elevation along a transect through primary rain forest in Papua New Guinea (ca. 7° S latitude). Eight trees were fogged (...

Plant size, leaf size and specific leaf area tend to decrease with increasing elevation, but in contrast to previous studies, maximum leaf conductance also decreases with altitude in New Guinea. The leaf characteristics of plants from high altitudes can be divided at least in 2 groups: 1) Characteristics like size and scleromorphy of leaves, which...

Six families, 29 genera and approximately 150 species of lizards are known from New Guinea and adjacent offshore islands (not including the Bismarcks) (Table 1). However, the fauna is incompletely known and many new species and even new genera have recently been discovered (Greer 1973; Greer and Parker 1974; M. Simon, pers. comm.). It is likely tha...

Changes in fat body weights, total body fat and reproductive activity were studied in Sceloporus occidentalis in the central Sierra Nevada, California at 1500 m and 2200 m elevation. At 1500 m adult females have a mean SVL of 72.0 to 75.5 mm, and at 2200 m range in SVL from 75.0 to 77.5 mm. Emergence of adults begins in early April and is complete...