Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2021 | 13(11): 19603–19610

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7318.13.11.19603-19610   

#7318 | Received 06 April 2021 | Final received 12 July 2021 | Finally accepted 04 September 2021

 

 

Catalogue of herpetological specimens from Meghalaya, India at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History

 

S.R. Chandramouli 1, R.S. Naveen 2, S. Sureshmarimuthu 3, S. Babu 4, P.V. Karunakaran 5 &

Honnavalli N. Kumara 6

 

1 Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry 605014, India.

2–6 Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India.

1 findthesnakeman@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 naveen89240@gmail.com, 3 mailme.sureshmarimuthu@gmail.com, 4 sanbabs@gmail.com (corresponding author), 5 karunakaran.pv@gmail.com, 6 honnavallik@gmail.com

 

 

 

Editor: Raju Vyas, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.       Date of publication: 26 Septtember 2021 (online & print)

 

Citation: Chandramouli, S.R., R.S. Naveen, S. Sureshmarimuthu, S. Babu, P.V. Karunakaran & H.N. Kumara (2021). Catalogue of herpetological specimens from Meghalaya, India at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History.  Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(11): 19603–19610. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7318.13.11.19603-19610

 

Copyright: © Chandramouli et al. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: National Mission on Himalayan Studies (GBPNI/NMHS-2017-18/MG 32, dated: 28.03.2018).

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: This publication is an offshoot of the project entitled ‘Characterization of Community Reserves and Assessment of their Conservation Values in Meghalaya’ funded by the National Mission on Himalayan Studies (GBPNI/NMHS-2017-18/MG 32, dated: 28.03.2018). Our sincere thanks are due to the additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden (CWLW), Meghalaya, and officers of the Forest and Environment Department, Government of Meghalaya for facilitating permission from the Community Reserve Management Committees to carry out the field study. We thank Mr. P. Karthik for conducting field work and collecting herpetological specimens from community reserves of Meghalaya. We are indebted to the management committees of each community reserve who gave us permission for this work.

 

 

 

Abstract:  We present a catalogue of herpetological specimens collected from select community reserves of Meghalaya, northeastern India. The collection comprises a total of 75 species of the herpetofauna, including 29 species of amphibians from 20 genera in seven families and 46 species of reptiles from 30 genera, in 10 families. We provide the details on number of examples, sex, museum numbers, and collection details including location and collector along with the relevant remarks where applicable. A total of five species of amphibians and four species of reptiles remain to be resolved systematically since no precise name could be attributed to them.

 

Keywords: Amphibia, Coimbatore, community reserves, museum collection, northeastern India, Reptilia, voucher specimens

 

 

The importance of natural history collections in enriching our knowledge on various aspects of organisms such as taxonomic, morphological, ontogenetic, genetic, phylogenetic, ecological, and biogeographic facets have been highlighted since the past (Lane 1996). Apart from serving as the basis for taxonomic entities, such collections of specimens serve as an important repository of historic information on species distribution patterns as well (Shaffer et al. 1998; Rocha et al. 2014; Turney et al. 2015; Yeates et al. 2016; Da Silva et al. 2017; Hill 2017; Ceríaco et al. 2019). Most of the herpetofaunal type collections within India are deposited in two museums, namely, the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI, Kolkata), and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS, Mumbai). Although the collections in such major museums have been catalogued at some point (Das & Chaturvedi 1998; Das et al. 1998; Chanda et al. 2000), there are several other institutions that house a sizable collection of specimens that often remain understudied. One such collection is in the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, India. SACON is an institution under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. A part of the herpetological collections at SACON from peninsular India has recently been catalogued (Ganesh et al. 2020). As a part of an ongoing study in select community reserves of Meghalaya, herpetofaunal specimens were collected by P. Karthik (research fellow of the project entitled ‘Characterization of Community Reserves and Assessment of their Conservation Values in Meghalaya’ funded by the National Mission on Himalayan Studies) and RSN and are deposited at SACON as vouchers. Herein, we present a catalogue of those herpetological specimens collected from Meghalaya that are maintained at SACON.

 

Materials and Methods

The herpetological specimens collected between the period 2018 to 2021 as a part of the ongoing surveys in community reserves of Meghalaya were preserved in ethanol and deposited in the collection of the SACON. Here, we list the collected specimens (only whole body, only non-larval) along with their voucher collection numbers. Institutional acronyms follow that of Ganesh et al (2020). Higher classification of amphibians and reptiles follow Frost (2021) and Uetz et al. (2021), respectively. Authorities are not mentioned for species with tentative identities indicated by ‘cf.’ Exceptional cases of more than one specimens catalogued under the same voucher number are distinguished by adding to their collection number the alphabets a, b, c etc. In cases where the specimens could not be identified precisely to the species level, the generic name only is mentioned followed by sp.

Relevant discussions based on recently published information is presented under such species to clarify their identification. Details of the collection localities mentioned below are presented in Table 1.

 

Catalogue of the herpetofaunal specimens from Meghalaya deposited at SACON

 

Amphibia Gray, 1825

Gymnophiona Müller, 1832

Ichthyophiidae Taylor, 1968

 Ichthyophis garoensis Pillai & Ravichandran, 1999 (n= 3)

SACON VA 79 and VA 87 - two unsexed adult specimens from Dumitdigre and Sasatgre respectively (coll: P. Karthik), VA 169 – an unsexed adult from Dharibokgre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remark: Another putative species, Ichthyophis hussaini Pillai & Ravichandran, 1999 from Garo Hills, Meghalaya was synonymized with I. garoensis by Kamei & Biju (2016).

 

Anura Fischer von Waldheim, 1813

Bufonidae Gray, 1825

 Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, 1799) (n= 3)

SACON VA 55 - one adult female and VA 56 and VA 66, two unsexed individuals, of which the former is a subadult, collected from Mongalgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Duttaphrynus sp. (n= 4)

SACON VA 103 a, b - two unsexed subadults, and VA 123 and VA 124 - two adult females, from Jirang (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: The identity of these specimens still needs resolution. Agarwal & Mistry (2008) reported D. stuarti (Smith, 1929) from Arunachal Pradesh, and Das et al. (2013) described D. chandai from the Nagaland-Manipur border.

 

Microhylidae Günther, 1858

 Microhyla berdmorei (Blyth, 1856) (n= 1)

SACON VA 102, an adult female from Meghalaya (precise location unknown) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Microhyla cf. mymensinghensis (n= 4)

SACON VA 81 a, b, c - three adult females from Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik). VA 155 - an unsexed adult from Chimanpara (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remark: A species described recently from the M. ornata complex (Hasan et al. 2014). The precise identity of these samples requires further study.

 

Megophryidae Bonaparte, 1850

 Leptobrachium cf. sylheticum (n= 6)

SACON VA 57, VA 61 - two adult females from Mongalgre; VA 58, VA 59, VA 60 - three unsexed adult specimens and VA 151 - an unsexed adult from Eman Asakgre (coll. R.S. Naveen).  

Remarks: The reports of another species, L. rakhinense Wogan, 2012, from Northeast India have been shown by Dutta et al (2013) to represent L. smithi. Very recently, populations of the ‘L.smithi’ complex were reassessed by Al-Razi et al (2021) and described as a new species. Considering the geographic proximity of our samples to the type locality of L. sylheticum, we refer our specimens as L. cf. sylheticum.

 Leptobrachella cf. khasiorum (n= 1)

VA 115 - an unsexed subadult from Jirang (coll. P. Karthik)

 Xenophrys major (Boulenger, 1908) (n= 1)

SACON VA 83 - an adult female from Mongalgre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: The genus Xenophrys Günther, 1864, which was placed under the synonymy of Megophrys Kuhl & Van Hasselt, 1822 by Mahony et al. (2013) has now been revalidated by Lyu et al (2021).

 Xenophrys megacephala (Mahony, Sengupta, Kamei & Biju, 2011) (n= 1)

VA 80 - an unsexed adult specimen from Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: See above for taxonomic validity of the genus Xenophrys Günther, 1864.

 Xenophrys oropedion (Mahony, Teeling & Biju, 2013) (n= 1)

VA 67 - an adult female from Daribokgre (coll. P. Karthik)

Remark: See above for taxonomic validity of the genus Xenophrys Günther, 1864.

 Xenophrys sp. (n= 1)

VA 86 - an unsexed subadult from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik), whose identity could not be determined. 

 

Dicroglossidae Anderson, 1871

 Fejervarya sp. (n= 5)

VA 54, VA 82 and VA 98 - three adult females from Mongalgre and Lum Jusong, respectively. VA 75 - an adult male from Dumitdigre. VA 107 - an unsexed subadult from Lum Jusong (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: A large-bodied Fejervarya frog, F. orissaensis Dutta, 1997 has recently been shown to occur across most parts of Indochina (Köhler et al. 2019). The identity of our Fejervarya specimens still needs taxonomic resolution.

 Minervarya sengupti (Purkayastha & Matsui, 2012) (n= 10)

Ten specimens. VA 117–119 - three adult females from Jirang. VA 62 - one adult female. VA 63–65 - three adult males from Daribokgre. VA 71 - one adult female from Dumitdigre. VA 89, VA 97 - two adult females from Meghalaya (precise location unavailable) (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: A fairly recently described species from Mawphlang, Khasi Hills, Meghalaya (Purkayastha & Matsui 2012).

 Minervarya cf. pierrei (n= 7)

VA 72, VA 73 and VA 74 - three adult males from Dumitdigre. VA 116 – an adult female from Jirang. VA 92  an adult female from Daribokgre and VA 84–85 - two unsexed adult specimens from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: The taxonomic status and distribution of Minervarya pierrei (Dubois, 1975) and Minervarya agricola (Jerdon, 1853) were recently discussed by Chandramouli et al. (2019) and Phuge et al. (2020).

 Minervarya sp. (n= 1)

VA 109 - an unsexed juvenile specimen from Meghalaya (coll. P. Karthik) that could not be identified to species level.

 Limnonectes khasianus (Anderson, 1871) (n= 8)

VA 111, VA 112 - two adult males from Jirang, VA 99 and VA 69 - two adult males from Dimitdigre, VA 68 – an unsexed adult from Meghalaya (precise locality unknown) (coll. P. Karthik), VA 130–131, two unsexed adults from Rongalgre and VA 132, an unsexed subadult from Kitmadamgre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remark: Ohler & Deuti (2013) discussed and confirmed the synonymy of Rana laticeps Boulenger, 1882 with Pyxicephalus khasianus Anderson, 1871, thereby highlighting the seniority of the name combination Limnonectes khasianus (Anderson, 1871).

 Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider, 1799) (n= 4)

VA 94 - one adult female (coll. P. Karthik). VA 113, VA 114, VA 125 - three unsexed subadults from Jirang (coll. P. Karthik).  

 Ingerana borealis (Annandale, 1912) (n= 5)

VA 135-138, four unsexed adults from Rongalgre, VA 161 – an adult female from Rongalgre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 

Ranidae Batsch, 1796

 Clinotarsus alticola (Boulenger, 1882) (n= 4)

VA 95 and VA 106 - two adult females, VA 110 - a juvenile and VA 91 - a subadult from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remarks: Members of the genus Clinotarsus Minvart, 1869 show a disjunct pattern of geographic distribution. While C. curtipes (Jerdon, 1853) is restricted to the Western Ghats of southwestern peninsular India, the other two congeners C. alticola (Boulenger, 1882) and C. penelope Grosjean, Bordoloi, Chuaynkern, Chakravarty & Ohler, 2015 occur in the Indochinese region.

 Hylarana tytleri Theobald, 1868 (n= 1)

VA 93 - one unsexed subadult from Lum Jusong (coll. P. Karthik).

 Hydrophylax leptoglossa (Cope, 1868) (n= 2)

VA 100-101 - two adult females from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik). 

 Amolops assamensis Sengupta, Hussain, Choudhury, Gogoi, Ahmed & Choudhury, 2008 (n= 1)

 VA 52 - an unsexed subadult from Jirang,(coll. P. Karthik).

 Amolops marmoratus (Blyth, 1855) (n= 2)

VA 90a-b - two unsexed juveniles from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Amolops sp. (n= 3)

VA 120–122 - three subadult females from Jirang. Their identity could not be determined to species level.

 

Rhacophoridae Hoffman, 1932

 Polypedates himalayensis (Annandale, 1912) (n= 3)

VA 76, VA 77 and VA 78 - Three adult females, from Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Polypedates cf. leucomystax (n= 1)

VA 162, an unsexed adult from Tura (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remark: The identity of P. leucomystax from India still needs finer taxonomic resolution (Frost 2021).

 Raorchestes sp. (n= 9)

VA 51 a&b, VA 105 – respectively, two adult males and an unsexed adult specimen from Mongalgre (coll. P. Karthik), VA 126–128, three unsexed adults from Sakalgre and VA 129 one from Daribokgre, VA 149–150 - two adult males from Sasatgre and Eman Asakgre respectively (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remarks: Boruah et al (2018) presented point localities for R. shillongensis Pillai & Chanda, 1973 from Khasi Hills, lying to nearly 20 km to the east of Mongalgre. The identity of the specimens recorded here requires further study.

 Theloderma baibungense (Jiang, Fei & Huang, 2009) (n= 2)

VA 88, VA 96 – an unsexed juvenile and an adult female from Selbalgre and Raid Nongbri respectively (coll. P. Karthik).

 Kurixalus naso (Annandale, 1912) (n= 2)

VA 134, VA153 unsexed adults from Eman Asakgre and Sasatgre respectively (coll. R.S. Naveen).

Remark: Lalronunga et al. (2021) presented records of K. yangi from Mizoram and discussed their distribution records and confusions on the identities of the two species, indicating a possible synonymy of K. yangi with K. naso. 

 

Reptilia Laurenti, 1768

Sauria Macartney, 1802

Gekkonidae Gray, 1825

 Cnemaspis assamensis Das & Sengupta, 2000 (n= 3)

VR 237, VR 233 and VR 221 - Three adults; one male, one female and an unsexed from Raid Nongbri, respectively (coll. P. Karthik).

 Cyrtodactylus cf. agarwali (n= 6)

VR 230–231, two adult males, from Sasatgre; VR 181–183 three adults from Daribokgre; and VR 153- one juvenile from Mongalgre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: Purkayasta et al. (2020) recently reported another species, C. urbanus Purkayastha, Das, Bohra, Bauer & Agarwal, 2020 from Nongpoh. Additionally, Purkayasta et al. (2021) described two more new species C. agarwali and C. karsticola from the Garo Hills.

 Hemidactylus platyurus (Schneider, 1797) (n= 7)

VR 198, VR 218a and VR 232 - three adult males and VR 218b - one adult female from Mongalgre, VR 195, VR 200 and VR 216 three adult females from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Hemidactylus frenatus Duméril & Bibron, 1836 (n= 1)

VR 222 - subadult from Meghalaya (no more precise locality) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Hemidactylus sp. (n= 1)

VR 171 - subadult male from Meghalaya (no more precise locality) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Gekko gecko (Linnaeus, 1758) (n= 1)

VR 229 - adult male from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Agamidae Gray, 1827

 Calotes cf. irawadi (n= 9)

VR 178 a & b - an unsexed and an adult female  from Sasatgre; VR 205, VR 240–245- six unsexed subadult specimens respectively from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

Remarks: Zug et al. (2006) described Calotes irawadi from Myanmar. The exact identity of our samples from Meghalaya still needs further investigation regarding their potential conspecificity with that newly described taxon.

 Calotes maria Gray, 1845 (n= 2)

VR 166, 173 – two adults respectively from Daribokgre and Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Calotes emma Gray, 1845 (n= 3)

VR 247, VR 150, VR 151 - one adult from Dumitdigre, two adults respectively from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Calotes sp. (n= 2)

VR 206, 251 – respectively, an unsexed subadult and adult male from Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: Species is uncertain and needs to be determined.

 Cristidorsa planidorsata (Jerdon, 1870) (n= 4)

VR 185 and VR 169 - two adult males from Meghalaya (no more precise location); VR 184 and VR 188- one adult female each from Daribokgre and Sasatgre, respectively (coll. P. Karthik).

 Ptyctolaemus gularis (Peter, 1864) (n= 8)

VR 238, VR 239, VR 207 - three adult males  and, VR 201 -  an unsexed juvenile from Meghalaya (no more precise location), VR 167, VR 168, VR 179 and VR 180 - four unsexed adults from Daribokgre (coll. P. Karthik). 

Scincidae Gray, 1825

 Sphenomorphus indicus (Gray, 1853) (n= 3)

VR 186, VR 224, VR 249 – three unsexed adults respectively from Daribokgre, Sasatgre, and Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Sphenomorphus maculatus (Blyth, 1853) (n= 7)

VR 164, VR 165, VR 197, VR 234 a&b - five unsexed adults and VR 217 and VR 226 - two subadults from Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Sphenomorphus sp. (n= 1)

VR 227 - subadult from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Eutropis multifasciata (Kuhl, 1820) (n= 1)

VR 169 - juvenile from Nongsangu.

 Eutropis cf. macularia (n= 4)

VR 199 - one juvenile, VR198 - one subadult and VR 235 and VR 236 - two adults from Lum Jusong (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Lacertidae Oppel, 1811

 Takydromus khasiensis Boulenger, 1917 (n= 2)

VR 155, 208 – two unsexed adults respectively from Mongalgre and Nongsangu (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Serpentes Linnaeus, 1758

Typhlopidae Merrem, 1820

 Argyrophis diardii (Schlegel, 1839) (n= 4)

VR 187, 223 – two adult specimens respectively from Daribokgre and Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik), VR 255–256 – one adult and subadult respectively from Dangkipara (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Indotyphlops sp. (n= 1)

An unsexed adult specimen (VA 219) from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: Superficially resembles I. braminus (Daudin, 1803) but the precise identity of this specimen requires further study.

 

Pseudaspididae Cope, 1893

 Psammodynastes pulverulentus (Boie, 1827) (n= 1)

VR 152 - a subadult specimen from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Colubridae Oppel, 1811

 Calamaria parvimentata Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854 (n= 1)

VR 261 – an unsexed adult from Daribokre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Lycodon zawi Slowinski, Pawar, Win, Thin, Gyi, Oo & Tun, 2001 (n= 1)

VR 204 – an unsexed adult specimen from Lum Jusong (coll. P. Karthik).

 Lycodon sp. (n= 2)

VR 213, VR 215 – two subadult specimens from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik). Their specific identity needs further study.

 Lycodon jara (Shaw, 1802) (n= 1)

VR 253, an unsexed adult from Thokpara (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Lycodon cf. aulicus (n= 1)

VR 254, an unsexed adult from Thokpara (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Oligodon juglandifer (Wall, 1909) (n= 1)

VR 214 - unsexed adult road killed specimen from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Oligodon cyclurus (Cantor, 1839) (n= 1)

VR 254 – an unsexed adult from Thokpara.

 Boiga cyanea (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) (n= 1)

VR 228 - a large adult specimen from Nongsangu (coll. P. Karthik).

 Boiga gocool (Gray, 1834) (n= 3)

VR 190–192 – unsexed subadults from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Dendrelaphis proarchos (Wall, 1909) (n= 1)

VR 210 - adult from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

Remark: Vogel & Van Rooijen (2011) revalidated D. proarchos from the synonymy of D. pictus which has recently been endorsed by Hakim et al. (2020).

 Coelognathus radiatus (Boie, 1827) (n= 1)

VR 189 - subadult from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Elaphe cantoris (Boulenger, 1894) (n= 1)

VR 211 - an unsexed adult (VR 211) from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Pareidae Romer, 1956

 Pareas monticola (Cantor, 1839) (n= 1)

VR 212 - adult from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Natricidae Bonaparte, 1838

 Pseudoxenodon macrops (Blyth, 1855) (n= 1)

VR 260 – an adult male from Chandigre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Trachischium monticola (Cantor, 1839) (n= 3)

VR 163, VR 172, VR 220 - adults from Daribokgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Hebius khasiense (Boulenger, 1890) (n= 8)

VR 162, VR 175–177 four unsexed adults from Sasatgre, VR 209, VR 225, VR 246 - three unsexed adults from Meghalaya (no more precise precise location) (coll. P. Karthik), VR 257 – an unsexed adult from Sasatgre (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Fowlea piscator (Schneider, 1799) (n= 3)

VR 156 - adult male road killed specimen from Nongsangu. VA 202–203 - adults from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

Remarks: Purkayastha et al. (2018) allocated Xenochrophis piscator to the genus Fowlea Theobald, 1868.

 Smithophis bicolor (Blyth, 1854) (n= 1)

VR 194 - subadult male from Northeastern Hill University Campus, Shillong (coll. P. Karthik).

Remarks: This specimen was recently described in detail by Chandramouli et al. (2021).

 

Elapidae Boie, 1827

 Sinomicrurus macclellandi (Reinhardt, 1844) (n= 1)

VR 159 - one adult from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Naja kaouthia Lesson, 1831 (n= 1)

VR 157 - one juvenile from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836) (n= 1)

VR 252 - an adult male from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik).

 

Viperidae Oppel, 1811

 Ovophis monticola (Günther, 1864) (n= 3)

VR 161, VR 193, VR 248 - three adults from Dumitdigre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Trimeresurus popeiorum Smith, 1937 (n= 2)

VR 170, VR 174 - two adults, respectively one male and one female from Daribokgre and Sasatgre (coll. P. Karthik).

 Trimeresurus erythrurus (Cantor, 1839) (n= 2)

VR 158 - subadult from Selbalgre (coll. P. Karthik), VR 259 – a subadult from Dalu (coll. R.S. Naveen).

 Trimeresurus sp. (n= 1)

VR 160 - one subadult, (VR 160) from Meghalaya (no more precise location) (coll. P. Karthik), whose specific identity needs further study.

 

Discussion

Currently, the collection encompasses a total of 75 species of the herpetofauna, including 29 species of amphibians from 20 genera in seven families and 46 species of reptiles from 31 genera, in 10 families. Reptiles are represented by 17 species of lizards and 29 species of snakes. This collection is expected to grow as the field study continues. The collections from peninsular India at SACON have recently been catalogued (Ganesh et al. 2020) and there still are collections from other regions within India that will be cataloged in future. Herpetofaunal collections in other institutions within India are recently being catalogued (e.g., Ganesh 2010; Ganesh & Asokan 2010; Zacharias & Jose 2020) which would aid in supplementing our knowledge on herpetofaunal species and their distribution.

 

 

Table 1. GPS coordinates of collection localities in Meghalaya, India.

 

Community Reserves / Sites

District

Latitude (°N)

Longitude

(°E)

Altitude (m)

1

Chandigre

West Garo Hills

25.5362

90.3256

833

2

Dalu

West Garo Hills

25.2206

90.2163

31

3

Daribokgre

North Garo Hills

25.47902

90.3105

1123

4

Mongalgre

West Garo Hills

25.6261

90.2064

535

5

Sakalgre

West Garo Hills

25.5143

90.3808

895

6

Sasatgre

West Garo Hills

25.5262

90.3283

895

7

Selbalgre

West Garo Hills

25.5143

90.2030

282

8

Tura

West Garo Hills

25.515

90.2027

281

9

Kitmadamgre

North Garo Hills

25.8006

90.3959

223

10

Eman Asakgre

South Garo Hills

25.36989

90.54481

174

11

Thokpara

West Garo Hills

25.2756

90.1051

94

12

Dangkipara

South Garo Hills

25.4286

90.3269

380

13

Chimanpara

West Garo Hills

25.29606

90.12145

92

14

Rongalgre

West Garo Hills

25.4574

90.1669

112

15

Dumitdigre

West Garo Hills

25.6084

92.0156

1103

16

NEHU, Shillong

East Khasi Hills

25.6126

91.8972

1404

17

Jirang

Ri Bhoi

25.8974

91.5849

647

18

Lum Jusong

Ri Bhoi

25.8948

92.0396

919

19

Nongpoh

Ri Bhoi

25.8983

91.8956

681

20

Nongsangu

Ri Bhoi

25.8717

92.0529

740

21

Raid Nongbri

Ri Bhoi

25.9152

92.0156

790

NEHU—North Eastern Hill University

 

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