. Current herpetology. Reptiles; Herpetology. Current Herpetol. 22(1) 2003. boulengeri 50 km Fig. 1. A map of the Amakusa Islands and the Kyushu Main Island, Japan, showing sampling localities of hynobiid species used in this study. Coarsely dotted and darkened areas represent areas >500 m and 1000 m asl, respectively. fauna of this island group until now. Recently, we collected specimens of a Hyno- bius salamander along a small stream of Kamishima Island. The specimens resembled H. naevius at a glance, but were not easy to identify. However, this form was obviously a lotic breeder (Sato, 1
. Current herpetology. Reptiles; Herpetology. Current Herpetol. 22(1) 2003. boulengeri 50 km Fig. 1. A map of the Amakusa Islands and the Kyushu Main Island, Japan, showing sampling localities of hynobiid species used in this study. Coarsely dotted and darkened areas represent areas >500 m and 1000 m asl, respectively. fauna of this island group until now. Recently, we collected specimens of a Hyno- bius salamander along a small stream of Kamishima Island. The specimens resembled H. naevius at a glance, but were not easy to identify. However, this form was obviously a lotic breeder (Sato, 1943), because it had a stout tail, mountain habitat, and stream dwell- ing larvae with claw-like cutaneous structures. Up to now, H. nebulosus, a lentic breeder, has been found in lowlands of Kamishima and Shimoshima Islands as mentioned above. This species possesses a compressed tail with yel- lowish streaks on its edges, and these morpho- logical characteristics, along with its breeding in the still water, completely differentiate H. nebulosus from the salamander in question. From the southern part of Kyushu, three species of lotic breeding Hynobius salamanders, H. naevius, H. boulengeri, and H. stejnegeri, have been reported. In order to assess the taxonomic status of this salamander, we investigated its natural history and compared its morphological char- acteristics with those of its putative relatives from the main island of Kyushu. Materials and Methods The salamander was searched for on 7 April, 7 May, and 14 October 2002, along small streams on Kamishima Island, Kumamoto Prefecture (detailed locality information is not given for conservation reasons). Environmen- tal conditions of the habitat were recorded, and salamanders collected were fully anesthe- tized and their livers were removed for genetic study. They were then fixed in 10% formalin before final preservation in 70% ethanol. Four populations of three lotic breeding Hynobius species from the central and south-
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Keywords: ., bookcollectionbiodi, booksubjectherpetology, booksubjectreptiles
