Journal of Animal Diversity
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Mar 2021

We report the discovery of the Sikkim Frog, Ombrana sikimensis from Central Bhutan’s Zhemgang district, in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. The frog which was found residing in a clean perennial stream is used by the local human population for consumption. It is supposed to heal stomach related ailments. This record will help Bhutan understand the use and importance of the species and help in prioritizing conservation.

Abnormalities in reptiles have been mostly reported from captive individuals. Here, we report a case of unilateral anophthalmy in the Burmese python Python bivittatus for the first time from Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Reptiles exposed to various pollutants, such as pesticides, can develop morphological abnormalities. The present report from a human-dominated landscape is an opportunistic observation of a rescued snake. We suggest a more systematic, collection-based, research program to reveal the possible causative agents and the degree of their effect on herpetofauna in Nepal.

The occurrence of the hormurid scorpion Liocheles australasiae (Fabricius) is reported for the first time from the state of Mizoram, northeast India. The specimens were identified on the basis of morphological characters and molecular analysis using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I gene. The species is reported from multiple localities within the state, constituting at least seven different populations. The specimens were larger than those from previous records.

The Marsh frog, Pelophylax ridibundus (Pallas) is distributed in Central Europe from northeastern France, north to the southern shorelines of the Baltic Sea (and extreme southern Finland), south to northeastern Spain, northern Italy and the Balkans including eastern Greece, east to approximately 81° E in Asiatic Russia, and south to western Iran and Afghanistan. The present study has been conducted on populations of P. ridibundus in the northern, eastern and southern regions of the Shadegan Wetland of Khuzestan Province, Iran with the aim of examining some aspects of its morphology and karyotype. Frog specimens were collected from different portions of the Shadegan Wetland during spring and autumn 2016 and transferred to the laboratory. According to the morphological results, three color patterns are identified among the samples in terms of the morphology, morphometry and sex - according to the sex independency test. T-test results between males and females indicate a significant difference in all traits and the results of a T2 Hotelling test show that there is sexual dimorphism between males and females. However, the results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) illustrate a separation between males of the northern region and the two other regions, and no differentiation between females in the eastern and southern regions of the wetland. The karyotype of the species in the wetland included 2n= 26, one pair of which had a sex chromosome.

We assessed the correlation of fish assemblages with habitat and environmental variables temporally from July and October, 2019 and January and April, 2020 across 5 study sites in the Phewa Khola stream of Mangsebung Rural Municipality, Ilam, Nepal. We sampled 3571 fish representing 13 species, belonging to 3 orders, 4 families, and 9 genera. An analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) indicated that there is a significant difference between the fish assemblage structure in space (R= 0.833, P= 0.001) but not in time (R= -0.148, P= 0.985). Our habitat study showed that glides, runs, pools and deep pools are the primary habitats contributing to the maximum diversity in the Phewa Khola stream. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) affirmed that variables such as pH, water temperature, water velocity, total hardness and dissolved oxygen play an important role in shaping fish species distribution. Results from the similarity percentage analysis (SIMPER) hinted that, 67.08% similarity was found between the months and the major contributing species were Schistura multifasciata (20.61%), Devario aequipinnatus (16.48%), Schistura rupecula (15.65%), Garra annandalei (15.36%), Schistura horai (7.74%), Schistura scaturigina (5.91%), Schistura savona (5.74%), Schizothorax plagiostomus (4.37%), Channa punctata (3.9%), Puntius terio (1.9%) and Neolissochilus hexagonolepis (1.39%). On the contrary, a 76.23% similarity was found between the sites and the major contributing species were Schistura multifasciata (21%), Devario aequipinnatus (16.8%), Garra annandalei (15.89%), Schistura rupecula (15.38%), Schistura horai (7.7%), Schistura scaturigina (5.66%), Schistura savona (4.9%), Schizothorax plagiostomus (4.4%), Channa punctata (3.97%), Puntius terio (2%) and Neolissochilus hexagonolepis (1.43%). Ongoing road development, micro-hydropower generation, the use of poisonous herbicides, illegal electro-fishing, deforestation and water diversion are all found to be major threats to the present fish species of the Phewa Khola stream.

A checklist of the damselfishes of the world, family Pomacentridae, is presented. A total of 798 nominal species belonging to 423 valid species and 29 genera is included. Most of the species are grouped in five genera: Chromis (109 species), Pomacentrus (82), Chrysiptera (40), Stegastes (39), and Amphiprion (29), but 12 genera contain only one or two species. The following main taxonomic decisions are taken: Chrysiptera personata Fowler, 1946 is a new synonym of Chrysiptera rex (Snyder 1909); Dischistodus notophthalmus (Bleeker, 1853) is the valid name for the species known as Dischistodus melanotus (Bleeker, 1858). Chaetodon rotundus Linnaeus, 1758 and Chaetodon rotundatus Lacepède, 1802 are senior synonyms of Abudefduf bengalensis (Bloch, 1787). Perca japonica Bloch, 1792 is a senior synonym of Chromis notata (Temminck and Schlegel, 1843); Pomacentrus niomatus De Vis, 1884 is a senior synonym of Stegastes fasciolatus (Ogilby, 1889); Glyphisodon sculptus Peters, 1855 is a senior synonym of Abudefduf notatus (Day, 1870). All these senior synonyms are herein regarded as nomina oblita. Neopomacentrus flavicauda is proposed as nomen novum Neopomacentrus xanthurus Allen and Randall, 1980. Stegastes adustus (Troschel, 1865) is the valid name for the species known as Stegastes dorsopunicans (Poey, 1868) and Wangia Fowler, 1954 is an available name not invalidated by Wanga Chen 1943.

We report on a topotypical specimen of the spot-tailed pit viper Trimeresurus erythrurus recorded from Sunderbans in India and a distant, southerly, range extension from Kakinada mangroves, based on preserved (n= 1, seen in 2019) and live uncollected (n= 2; seen in 2014) specimens, respectively. The specimens (n= 3) share the following characteristics: verdant green dorsum, yellow iris, white ventrolateral stripes in males, 23 midbody scale rows, 161–172 ventrals, 61–76 subcaudals, and reddish tail tip. Drawing on the published records, its apparent rarity within its type locality and lack of records from the Circar Coast of India, our study significantly adds to the knowledge of the distribution and morphology of this species. Being a medically important venomous snake, its presence in the Godavari mangrove basin calls for wider dissemination of this information among medical practitioners, in addition to fundamental researchers like academics and herpetologists.

Blanford’s Rock Agama, Psammophilus blanfordanus is an Indian endemic species of lizard in family Agamidae. A pair of the species was kept in captivity for six months for a breeding biology study. The female laid six eggs (average size 12.61 x 8.13 mm) in the month of August and hatchlings emerged after 34 days of incubation. Ambient temperature ranged between 27.5 to 31.5 °C. Average hatchling size was 24.15 mm snout to vent length and 33.63 mm tail length. All of the six eggs hatched.

The world currently recognizes 214 species of Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) most of which occur in the wet tropics and some adjacent subtropical regions. Of the ten-family classification known, three occur in Asia, viz. Chikilidae (endemic to northeast India, Indotyphlidae (India’s Western and Eastern Ghats) and Ichthyophiidae. However, until this report, there were no confirmed reports of any caecilian species from Bhutan, although their presence has been assumed likely given their occurrence in adjacent countries. This report provides the first confirmed report of caecilians in Bhutan with work to identify the species to be carried on later with further research.