Check List 18(5): 941-948, doi: 10.15560/18.5.941

Amphibian and reptile diversity along a ridge-to-reef elevational gradient on a small isolated oceanic island of the central Philippines

Camila G. Meneses^‡, Cameron D. Siler^§, Phillip A. Alviola^|, Juan Carlos T. Gonzalez^¶, Juancho B. Balatibat^¶, Cheryl A. Natividad^¶, Rafe M. Brown^‡

‡ University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States of America§ University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America| University of the Philippines Los Banos, Los Banos, Philippines¶ University of the Philippines Los Banos, Los Baños, Philippines

Corresponding author: Camila G. Meneses ( cgmeneses23@ku.edu )

Corresponding author: Rafe M. Brown ( rafe@ku.edu )

Academic editor: Jesse Grismer

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Meneses CG, Siler CD, Alviola PA, Gonzalez JCT, Balatibat JB, Natividad CA, Brown RM (2022) Amphibian and reptile diversity along a ridge-to-reef elevational gradient on a small isolated oceanic island of the central Philippines. Check List 18(5): 941-948. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.5.941

Abstract

Despite multiple recent field studies, herpetological species diversity of the Romblon Island Group in the central Philippines—particularly Sibuyan Island—has remained underestimated. Recently, we investigated the diversity of the herpetofauna of Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park, based on an elevational transect (10–1557 m a.s.l.). Our surveys resulted in a total of 47 species of amphibians and reptiles, including 14 new island records and one atypical occurrence of a snake species recorded for the first time from a high elevation (939 m a.s.l). These new records constitute a notable increase (21%) in Sibuyan’s herpetological species diversity as compared to surveys from a decade ago. We also provide updates of the taxonomy and identification of species endemic to this island (e.g., members of the genera Platymantis Günther, 1858, Brachymeles Duméril & Gibron, 1839, and Pseudogekko Taylor, 1922), and discuss the importance of continued surveys and field-derived data to inform conservation status assessments of Sibuyan’s unique assemblage of amphibians and reptiles.

Keywords

biodiversity, conservation, ecology, endemism, faunal region