Abstract
The herpetofauna of Andaman and Nicobar Island is diverse and has not been much focused. We present a brief history of herpetofaunal exploration and an annotated checklist in this chapter. A total of 102 species of amphibians and reptiles were occurring in terrestrial and marine environments of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. IUCN status and Scheduled species of Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972 are also provided. Of the recorded species, 2 species were listed in Schedule I, 3 species under Schedule II, and 36 species under Schedule IV of Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aengals R, Sathish Kumar VM, Palot MJ (2011) Updated checklist of Indian reptiles. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata 24 pp
Biswas S, Sanyal DP (1965) A new species of wolf-snake of the genus Lycodon Boie (Reptilia: Serpents: Colubridae) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Proc Zool Soc Calcutta 18:137–141
Biswas S, Sanyal DP (1977a) Notes on the Reptilia collection from the Great Nicobar during the Great Nicobar expedition in 1966. Rec Zool Surv India 72:107–124
Biswas S, Sanyal DP (1977b) A new species of skink of the genus Dasia Gray, 1889 (Reptilia: Scincidae) from Car Nicobar Island. India J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 74:133–136
Biswas S, Sanyal DP (1978) A new species of krait of the genus Bungarus Daudin, 1803 (Serpentes: Elapidae) from the Andaman Island. J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 75(1):179–183
Biswas S, Sanyal DP (1980) A report on the reptilian fauna of Andaman and Nicobars Islands in the collection of Zoological Survey of India. Rec Zool Surv India 77:255–292
Blyth E (1846) Notes on the fauna of Nicobar Islands–Reptilia. J Asiatic Soc Bengal 15:367–379
Crombie RI (1986) The status of the Nicobar toads Bufo camortensis Mansukhani and Sarkar, 1980 and Bufo spinipes Fitzinger in Steindachner, 1867. J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 83:226–229
Daniels RJR (2003) Impact of tea cultivation on anurans in the Western Ghats. Curr Sci 85:1415–1422
Daniels RJR, David PV (1996) The herpetofauna of Great Nicobar Island. Cobra 25:1–4
Das I (1994) A check-list of the amphibians and reptiles of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J Andaman Sci Assoc 10(1 and 2):44–49
Das I (1995) A new tree frog (Genus: Polypedates) from Great Nicobar, India (Anura: Rhacophoridae). Hamadryad 20:13–20
Das I (1996a) Limnonectes shompenorum, a new frog of the Rana macrodon complex from Great Nicobar. India J South Asian Nat Hist 2(1):60–67
Das I (1996b) Geographic distribution: Rana chalconota (copper-cheeked frog). Herpetol Rev 27:30
Das I (1997a) Rediscovery of Lipinia macrotympanum (Stoliczka, 1873) from the Nicobar Islands, India. Asiatic Herpetol Reh 7:23–26
Das I (1997b) A new species of Cyrtodactylus from the Nicobar Island, India. J Herpetol 31(3):375–382
Das I (1998) A new species of Boiga (Squamata: serpentes: Colubridae) from the Nicobar Archipelago. J South Asian Nat Hist 3(1):59–67
Das I (1999) Biogeography of the amphibians and reptiles of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. In: Ota H (ed) Tropical Island herpetofauna. Origin, current diversity and current status. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 43–77
Das I, Andrews HV (1997) Bibliography of the herpetology of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Hamadryad 22(1):68–72
Das I, Chandra K (1994) Two snakes new to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J Andaman Sci Assoc 10(1and 2):114–115
Das I, Gemel R (2000) Nomenclatural status of Fitzinger’s (1861) Pseudocalotes archiducissae, and confirmation of Bronchocela cristatella (Kuhl, 1820) from the Nicobar Archipelago (Squamata: Sauria: Agamidae). Herpetozoa 13(1/2):55–58
Das I, Vijayakumar SP (2009) New species of Ptychozoon (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from the Nicobar Archipelago, Indian Ocean. Zootaxa 2095:8–20
Dinesh KP, Radhakrishnan C, Channakeshavamurthy BH, Kulkarni NU (2015) Checklist of Amphibia of India, updated till January 2015 available at. http://mhadeiresearchcenter.org/resourcesmhadeiresearchcenter.org/resources (online only)
Dubois A (1984) Note preliminaire sur le groupe de Rana limnocharis Gravenhorst, 1829 (Amphibiens, Anoures). Alytes Paris 3:143–159
Ghodke S, Andrews HV (2001a) Recent record of Cantoria violacea (Girard, 1857) from North and Middle Andaman Islands, India with a note on its bite. Hamadryad 26(2):371–373
Ghodke S, Andrews HV (2001b) Enhydris plumbea (Boie, 1827) (Serpents: Colubridae: Homalopsinae): a new record for India. Hamadryad 26(2):373–375
Hallermann J (2009) A new species of Bronchocela (Squamata: Agamidae) from Nicobar Island. Bonner Zoologische Beiträge 56:279–284
Harikrishnan S, Vasudevan K (2013) The distribution of some reptiles in the Nicobar Islands, India. ANET Technical Report
Harikrishnan S, Choudhary BC, Vasudevan K (2010a) Recent records of snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) from Nicobar Islands, India. J Threaten Taxa 2(11):1297–1300
Harikrishnan S, Vasudevan K, Choudhury BC (2010b) A review of herpetofaunal descriptions and studies from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with an updated checklist. In: Ramakrishna, Raghunathan C, Sivaperuman C (eds) Recent trends in biodiversity of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, pp 387–398
Harikrishnan S, Vasudevan K, Chandramouli SR, Choudhury BC, Dutta SK, Das I (2012) A new species of CoryphophylaxFitzinger in Steindachner, 1867 (Sauria: Iguania: Agamidae) from the Andaman Islands, India. Zootaxa 3451:31–45
IFSR (2015) India State of Forest Report, 2015 published by Forest Survey of India, Ministry of environment, forest and climate change, Dehra Dun, ISBN No-97881929285-2-4 vol.16-2013-14
IUCN (2017) The IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2017-3. Downloaded on 05 December 2017
Lips KR (1998) Decline of a tropical montane amphibian fauna. Conserv Biol 12(106):117
Mansukhani MR, Sarkar AK (1980) On a new species of toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from Camorta, Andaman and Nicobar, India. Bull Zool Surv India 3(1 and 2):97–101
Mehta HS, Rao GC (1987) Microhylid frogs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J Andaman Sci Assoc 3(2):98–104
Murthy TSN, Chakrapany S (1983) Rediscovery of the blind snake Typhlopsoatesii in Andamans, India. The Snake 15:48–49
Pillai RS (1977) On two frogs of the family Microhylidae from Andamans including a new species. Proc Indian Acad Sci 86B(2):135–138
Pillai RS (1991) Contribution to the amphibian fauna of Andaman and Nicobar with a new record of the mangrove frog Rana cancrivora. Rec Zool Surv India 88:41–44
Rangasamy V, Chandra K, Raghunathan C, Venkataraman K (2014) Amphibians and Reptiles in Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Diversity and Distribution, Souvenir; Island Biodiversity published by Uttar Pradesh State Biodiversity Board 124–130 pp.
Ratnam J (1993) Status and natural history of the Andaman day gecko, Phelsuma andamanense. Dactylus 2:59–66
Roy D (2002) Amphibians as environmental sentinels. J Biosci 27:187–188
Sarkar AK (1990) Taxonomic and ecological studies on the amphibians of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Rec Zool Surv India 86:103–117
Sivaperuman C, Deepak R (2013) Diversity and distribution of amphibians and reptiles in the Ritchie’s archipelago, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J Andaman Sci Assoc 18(1):32–28
Smith MA (1940) The herpetology of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Proc Linn Soc London 3:150–158
Stoliczka F (1873) Note on some Andamanese and Nicobarese reptiles, with the description of three new species of lizards. J Asiatic Soc Bengal 92(3):162–169
Stuart SN, Hoffmann M, Chanson JS, Cox NA, Berridge RJ, Ramani P, Young BE (2008) Threatened Amphibians of the World. Lynx Editions, Barcelona, Spain; IUCN, Gland, Switzerland; and Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, USA
Tiwari M (1992) First record on the sunbeam snake Xenopeltis unicolor (Reinwardt, 1827) (Serpentes: Xenopeltidae) from Great Nicobar Island. J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 89(3):383
Tiwari K, Biswas S (1973) Two new reptiles from the Great Nicobar Island. J Zool Soc India 25(1and2):57–63
Tytler RC (1864) Observations on a few species of Geckos alive in the possession of the author. J Asiatic Soc Bengal 33:535–548
Vijayakumar SP (2005) Status and distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles of the Nicobar Islands, India. Final Report. Rufford Foundation/Madras Crocodile Bank/Wildlife Institute of India, 48
Vijayakumar SP, David P (2006) Taxonomy, natural history, and distribution of the snakes of the Nicobar Islands (INDIA), based on new materials and with an emphasis on endemic species. Russian J Herp 13(1):11–40
Whitaker R (1978) Birth record of the Andaman Pit Viper, Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus. J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 75(1):233
Wuster W, Thorpe RS, Cox M, Jintakune P, Nabhitabhata J (1995) Population systematics of the snake genus Naja (Reptilia: Serpentes: Elapidae) in Indochina: multivariate morphological and comparative mitochondrial DNA sequencing (cytochrome oxidase I). J Evol Biol 8:493–510
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, for providing the necessary facilities for carrying out the work. Our gratitude is also expressed to the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rangasamy, V., Sivaperuman, C., Gokulakrishnan, G., Parthipan, P. (2018). Herpetofauna of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In: Sivaperuman, C., Venkataraman, K. (eds) Indian Hotspots. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6983-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6983-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6982-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6983-3
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)