Vernacular Names of Some Southeast Asian Amphibians and Reptiles.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
Vernacular Names of Some Southeast Asian Amphibians and Reptiles. |
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Author :
Indraneil Das |
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Abstract:
The rich herpetofauna of southeast Asia, composed of many hundred species of frogs, toads, caecilians (pronounced “Sicilians”), crocodiles, turtles, tortoises, lizards and snakes, remains grossly understudied. While collecting ulata on the ecology and distribution of the amphibians and reptiles of southeast Asia in general and that of Brunei Darussalam in particular, it occurred to me that a list of local names of these organisms, along with their meanings, would be useful to local naturalists, the lay people, and particularly medics who may have to treat victims of bites of unknown and long-gone snakes, with only the vernacular names to help in their identification. The list is derived from literature (listed in the references section),as well as from locals in several southeast Asian countries I interviewed, and generally covers the Indo-Malaysia region, excluding Myanmar and Thailand and include West (peninsular) and East (Sarawak and Sabah) Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. For each species, I have provided an English name, the current scientific name, authority and date, followed by the language, vernacular name, and its meaning in English, if known. This list is obviously not exhaustive. A total of 382 names, 41 for amphibians and 341 for reptiles have been presented, representing 26 amphibian and 126 reptile species. Some species have more than one name even in the same locality. On the other hand, the same name may sometimes be applied to several species that are usually similar in morphology and/or colouration, at the same locality, or at different localities. I have ignored minor dialect differences. The English derivations of the vernacular have been obtained mostly through colleagues (listed in ‘Acknowledgements’) and from Richards (1988). Kiew (1984) has provided English and Malay common names for all Malaysian amphibian species then known, and I have refrained from relisting these in the present paper. I welcome comments from readers on any errors and major omissions in the list.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Indraneil Das. (1993). Vernacular Names of Some Southeast Asian Amphibians and Reptiles. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XLIV (65): 123-140 |
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References
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