in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

een changed to L. ceylonensis (Praschag et al. 2011), Hemidactylus brookii parvimaculatusto H. parvimaculatus (Bauer et al. 2010a), Hemidactylus maculates hunae to H. hunae (Baueret al. 2010b), Hemidactylus triedrus lankae to H. lankae (Bauer et al. 2010), Hypnale nepato H. zara (Maduwage et al. 2009) and Geckoella triedrus (Günther, 1864) to Cyrtodactylustriedra (Wood, et al. 2012). Further, several species have been removed from the list of reptilesin Sri Lanka due to taxonomic revisions. For instance, Hypnale walli, has been declaredas a junior synonym of Hypnale nepa (Maduwage et al. 2009), Boiga ranawanei, as a juniorsynonym of Boiga beddomei (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2007) and Cnemaspisranwellai, as a junior synonym of Cnemaspis scalpensis (Manamendra-Arachchi, et al. 2007).DistributionThe name changes mentioned above have also resulted in status changes of number of species,where Lissemys ceylonensis, Hemidactylus hunae, and H. lankae are now listed as speciesendemic to Sri Lanka (Praschag et al. 2011; Bauer et al. 2010). Further, Wickramasinghe etal., (2011) have shown that Dasia halianus is also endemic to Sri Lanka. In addition numberof recent studies has provided evidence to change the previously known distribution patternof several species of reptiles. For instance, Cnemaspis kandianus and C. tropidagastur thatwere formerly considered to have a wide distribution in Sri Lanka is now known to be confinedto Kandy district and certain parts of the Matale district (Manamendra-Arachchi, et al. 2007).Likewise, Dendrelaphis tristis, who was thought to have a wide distribution, has now beenconfined to the dry and arid zones, but may be rarely found from the wet zone, while thespecies commonly found in the wet zone was re-validated as D. schokari who can also rarelybe found from the dry zone of the island, but never in the arid zone. On the other hand thedistribution range of number of species such as C. podihuna (Karunarathna et al 2010), C.molligodai, and C. silvulai, (Karunarathna and Amarasinghe 2011a, 2012), Calodactylodesillingworthorum, (Karunarathna and Amarasinghe 2011b), Liopeltis calamaria (Karunarathnaand Perera 2010), Lankascincus greeri (Karunarathna and Amarasinghe 2011a, Karunarathnaet al 2012; Peabotuwage et al 2012) has been expanded with the availability of new information.Laticauda colubrina (Schneider, 1799) was not included in the current list despite the fact thatseveral authors (Das & de Silva 2005; Somaweera 2006; Somaweera & Somaweera 2009)have included the species in their publications, due to the fact that there is no evidence for itslanding sights and no sight records for the species in the island’s surrounding oceans.ThreatsDeforestation, leading to loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation are the main threats facedby reptile fauna of Sri Lanka. The rate of forest depletion and loss of wild life habitats in SriLanka is considered one of the highest in South Asia with more than 50% of the forest coverbeing lost during the last century alone. Loss of forest cover is especially prominent in the dryzone of Sri Lanka which may be the reason for low level of endemicity observed in the reptilefauna. This idea is further supported by the fact that most of the dry zone restricted endemicreptiles are found in forests associated with isolated hills (Cnemaspis ritigalaensis in Ritigala,Cnemaspis kumarasinghei in Moneragala and Cnemaspis podihuna in Lahugala), which areperhaps the only forests patches that have been preserved untouched by man for centuries.Majority of the endemic and threatened reptiles are restricted to the Lowland and Montaneforests that are fast disappearing is identified as the biggest threat to the reptile fauna of SriLanka. In addition, mortality related to man-made forest fires, application of agrochemicals,road kills, non selective killing of snakes and predation by farm and domestic animals havealso been identified as threats faced by the reptile fauna.100