Imesh Nuwan Bandara

Northeastern University | NEU · Department of Economics

COVID-19 resulted in school closures on a global scale. However, the most significant closures appear to be in North America. Educational disruption is anticipated to impact educational attainment in terms of drop-out rates but more significantly with respect to exacerbating pre-pandemic educational inequity and corresponding poverty. This discussi...

Nannophrys marmorata is a critically endangered species of frog known only from a few locations in the Knuckles Conservation Forest (KCF) in the Knuckles mountain range of Sri Lanka. Here, we report new localities outside its known range in the KCF and examine the distribution of N. marmorata providing the most extensive distribution map for this s...

We describe a new species, Aspidura desilvai sp. nov., closely resembling A. trachyprocta and the last addition to the genus A. ravanai, from Knuckles massif, Matale District, of Sri Lanka. The species represents the ninth species of the genus known from Sri Lanka, and is readily distinguished from all other congeners by its colour pattern, the sca...

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A new species of shrub frog Pseudophilautus dilmah is described from the Central Hills of Sri Lanka. This unique species is distinguished from all the other congeners from a combination of characters; snout rounded in lateral aspect, bluntly pointed in dorsal and ventral aspect, canthus rostralis rounded, vomerine teeth, lingual papilla and nuptial...

Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Pseudophilautus bambaradeniyai, P. dayawansai, P. jagathgunawardanai, P. karunarathnai, P. newtonjayawardanei, P. puranappu, P. samarakoon, and P. sirilwijesundarai) were discovered as a result of a survey carried out to study the herpetofaunal diversity with the changes in elevation in the Sripada World Herita...

Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Pseudophilautus bambaradeniyai, P. dayawansai, P. jagathgunawardanai, P. karunarathnai, P. newtonjayawardanei, P. puranappu, P. samarakoon, and P. sirilwijesundarai) were discovered as a result of a survey carried out to study the herpetofaunal diversity with the changes in elevation in the Sripada World Herita...

This study on territorial behavior of Lyriocephalus scutatus suggests that territorial behavior is an important component of the life history of the species. Lyriocephalus scutatus belongs to the monotypic genus Lyriocephalus, and apparently its uniqueness, placing it in its own genus, extends to its strange behavior and atypical site fidelity. To...

A study shows that Giant Squirrels (Ratufa macroura) have become a serious constraint on various crops in traditional home gardens in Sri Lanka in recent times. Traditional home gardens in Sri Lankan rural villages are essentially mixed cropping with a variety of tree species that provide food, fruits, timber, medicine and spices. Giant squirrel is...

Uda Mäliboda Trail is an unstudied, remarkable forest located in the northwest region of Samanala Nature Reserve (SNR) in Sri Lanka’s wet zone. Here we report the first record of D. kotagamai from Uda Mäliboda Trail and the lowest elevation records of four highland Rhacophorid frogs: Pseudophilautus alto, P. asankai, P. femoralis, and Taruga eques....

Calotes liolepis is an endemic agamid lizard distributed in the lowland wet zone, intermediate zone and some wetter areas in the dry region of Sri Lanka. This species is categorized as 'Vulnerable' under the 2007 IUCN Global Red List. Although it is a relatively common species of lizard in Sri Lanka, general behavior, feeding and reproductive habit...

During the study we encountered 34 amphibian species representing 15 genera and seven families. Among those genera Adenomus, Lankanectes, Nannophrys, and Taruga are considered endemic to Sri Lanka. Our results show that at least 31% of Sri Lanka’s extant amphibians occur in the Uda Mäliboda area. Twenty-six of the 34 species encountered (76%) are e...

Introduction Samanala Nature Reserve, more commonly known as the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary (PWS) or simply Sri Pada, is one of the largest and most important forested areas in Sri Lanka. Sri Pada is the local name for Adam's Peak (2,245 m), the most prominent peak in the area and a mountain with great religious significance. On Sri Pada there is th...

A mature female Calotes liolepis was observed laying eggs on the ground in Manigala in the Knuckles Forest Region of Sri Lanka. This is the first complete-ly described observation of the ovipositioning as well as the captive egg hatching of Calotes liolepis. This ovipositional behaviour consisted of the digging of the nest cav-ity, oviposition, scr...

Lankanectes corrugatus (Peters, 1863) is lowland and a lower mountain species of frog endemic to Sri Lanka. The tadpole stage of this frog is poorly known and hence described here from the tadpoles collected from central Sri Lanka. The tadpoles of these species have depressed bodies, mucous glands found all over the body, no glands in the tail, one...

Carnivorous Mammals of Sri Lanka