in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

The Taxonomy and Conservation Status of the Reptile Fauna in Sri LankaL. J. Mendis WickramasingheHerpetological Foundation of Sri Lanka, 31/5, Alwis Town, Hendala, Wattala, Sri LankaIntroductionSince the description of the first reptile, Cylindrophis maculate (syn. Anguis maculata) fromSri Lanka by Carl Linnaeus in 1754, large number of reptile species have been recordedfrom Sri Lanka (Batuwita and Bahir, 2005; Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, 2007; Das, et al.2008; Deraniyagala 1953 and 1955; de Silva 1980; de Silva 1990; Gans & Fetcho, 1982;Gower and Maduwage 2011; Greer, 1991; Manamendra-Arachchi, et al. 2007; Pethiyagoda &Manamendra-Arachchi, 1998; Smith 1933, 1935 & 1943, Smith et al. 2008; Taylor 1950a, 1950b& 1953, Wall 1921; Wickramasinghe, et al. 2009, Wood et.al., 2012). These published worksindicates that Sri Lanka is endowed with a rich reptile fauna. The current list of reptile fauna ofSri Lanka comprise of 211 species of which 59% (124) are considered as endemic species. Thereptile fauna can be further categorized in to 103 species of serpentoid reptiles (49 endemic)belonging to 10 families, one Subfamilie and 40 genera (five endemic - Pseudotyphlops,Aspidura, Balanophis, Cercaspis and Haplocercus), and 108 species of tetrapod reptiles(76 endemic) belonging to 12 families with 34 genera (six endemic - Ceratophora, Cophotis,Lyriocephalus, Chalcidoseps, Nessia and Lankascincus).TaxonomySince the publication of the 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka, 24 newspecies have been added to the list of reptiles in Sri Lanka. Out of these, 17 are new to sciencethat includes four species of serpentoid reptiles Calliophis haematoetron (Smith et al. 2008),Rhinophis erangaviraji (Wickramasinghe, et al. 2009), Rhinophis lineatus, and Rhinophiszigzag (Gower and Maduwage 2011), and 13 species of tetrapod reptiles Cnemaspis amith,C. clivicola, C. kallima, C. latha, C. menikay, C. pava, C. phillipsi, C. pulchara, C. punctata,C. silvula, C. upendrai (Manamendra-Arachchi, et al. 2007), Lankascincus greeri (Batuwitaand Pethiyagoda 2007), Eutropis tammanna (Das, et al. 2008). The remaining seven specieshas resulted due to three re-validations Hypnale zara (Gray, 1849) by Maduwage et al. 2009and Dendrelaphis schokari (Kuhl, 1820) by Rooijen & Vogel 2008 and Hemidactylus pieresiiKelaart, 1853 by Batuwita & Pethiyagoda, 2012, a probable new species Hypnale sp. ‘amal’(Maduwage et al. 2009), two new records for Sri Lanka Hydrophis fasciatus (Abyerami andSivashanthini 2008) and Chalcides cf. ocellatus that resulted in a range extension of the genusChalcides from India to Sri Lanka (Karunarathna et al. 2008), and finally Enhydris enhydris(Schneider, 1799) was included since a specimen from Sri Lanka (CAS 12767) was examinedand identified by Murphy & Voris (2005) from the California Academy of Science.Number of taxonomic revisions has taken place during the last decade resulting in changesin reptile nomenclature at family, genus and species level. Nine genera belonging to thefamily Colubridae which consisted of 22 genera earlier have been placed under two otherfamilies based on molecular studies (genera Cerberus, Enhydris and Gerarda are included infamily Homolapsidae, and genera Amphiesma, Atretium, Argyrogena, Aspidura, Balanophis,Macropisthodon,and Xenochrophis are included in family Natricidae Vidal et al. 2009; Zaheret al. 2009). Genus level name changes included Sphenomorphus dorsicatenatus beingchanged to Lankascincus dorsicatenatus (Batuwita and Pethiyagoda, 2007), all members ofthe genus Mabuya being placed under the genus Eutropis (Mausfeld and Schmitz, 2003), andCosymbotus platyurus being changed to Hemidactylus platyurus (Carranza and Arnold, 2006).Several species level name changes have also been affected resulting in Lissemys punctata99