Measures of performance are used to quantify the ability of an individual to execute specific activities. In lizards, sprint speed is the most commonly evaluated measure of performance due to its relationship with biological fitness, presumably via increased effectiveness of foraging and escaping predators. Some lizards also use the aquatic environment and dive underwater as an effective means of foraging and/or escaping predators. We tested the usefulness of diving as a measure of performance in a small, diurnal lizard that frequently dives into intertidal water. Adults of Oligosoma smithi were encouraged to dive and the maximal duration of their dive as well as their behavior were recorded. Eighty-three percent of the 46 individuals dove in the six trials, with the longest dive time recorded at 6 min 36 s in a pregnant female. The diving ability of O. smithi was not related to pregnancy, whether an individual had eaten, or any of the morphological measures taken. We also searched for records of duration of diving in other lizards as a means of determining whether diving in water is widespread. Few data are available on duration of diving for other lizards. Our data suggest that, for species that submerge in water to forage and/or escape predators, diving ability should be considered as a measure of overall performance.

Hatchling orientation has been widely studied among marine turtle species, but much less so in nonmarine turtles. Yellow mud turtles (Kinosternon flavescens) exhibit an unusual semiaquatic life history with terrestrial estivation or hibernation in summer through winter and aquatic mating and feeding in spring and early summer. Hence, these turtles migrate between wetlands and uplands at least twice each year along the same migration path. To understand the orientation methods used by juvenile turtles, hatchling and second-year mud turtles emerging from hibernation were captured before reaching the water and released in one of two circular arenas placed out of sight of and on the opposite side of the wetland. Recapture locations of these turtles along the perimeter of the arenas suggested that hatchlings probably used visual (e.g., polarized light) or perhaps olfactory cues to orient toward water. However, second-year turtles maintained the same compass bearing used prior to initial capture, suggesting that they employed an internal compass mechanism that was not overridden by proximate cues from the wetland. The probable mechanism for setting that course was likely a sun and/or a magnetic compass.

The treefrog genus Hyla (Anura: Hylidae) consists of at least 31 species found in North America, Central America, Europe, and Asia and is the only genus of hylids that occurs outside the New World. Despite intensive work on the phylogeny of the genus in the past few years, several problems still exist regarding relationships within Hyla. These problems include the unusual placements of H. gratiosa and H. walkeri in some recent studies and the relatively limited taxon sampling of Asian species. In the present study, we revisit the phylogeny of Hyla to address some of these problems. First, we tested the unexpected placements of H. gratiosa and H. walkeri by sampling additional individuals of these species. Our results show that the unusual placements of H. gratiosa and H. walkeri in previous studies were most likely due to a mislabelled tissue sample and a misidentified specimen, respectively. Second, we included two species of Asian Hyla not included in previous phylogenies. Our study provides additional evidence for two separate colonizations of Hyla from the New World into Asia, and suggests an unusual biogeographic pattern in the Asian Hyla clades.

Herpetologists are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of hematological parameters for evaluating the welfare of their study animals. In particular, differential counts of white blood cells (from blood smears) are now commonly performed on amphibians, although interpretation of such counts relies on some knowledge of the normal range for the species in question, and for many species this range is not known. In this study we examined blood smears from 79 cricket frogs (Acris c. crepitans) from two ponds in northeastern Georgia to establish reference ranges of white blood cell differentials for this species and to explore possible differences in relative white blood cell numbers between sexes, ponds, and body sizes. For comparison, we also compiled values of many other amphibians from published and unpublished records. We found that lymphocytes made up the majority (68.3%) of white blood cells in cricket frogs, followed by neutrophils (22.4%). There was no difference in relative cell numbers of any type between sexes, nor was there an association with body size. Relative numbers of certain cell types (lymphocytes and neutrophils) varied between ponds. In general the values for cricket frogs resembled those of other amphibians, with high numbers of lymphocytes and neutrophils and low numbers of eosinophils, basophils and monocytes. However, in assembling the records for other species we discovered that all Ambystomatid salamanders examined thus far have markedly elevated values of eosinophils compared to other amphibian species. Moreover, their eosinophil counts may be the highest of all vertebrates, and clearly warrant further study to determine their significance.

The use of space by individual animals strongly influences the spatial extent, abundance, and growth rates of their populations. We analyzed the spatial ecology and habitat selection of Masticophis flagellum (the coachwhip) at three different scales to determine which habitats are most important to this species. Home ranges and mean daily displacements of M. flagellum in Florida were large compared to individuals in other populations of this species. Home ranges contained a greater proportion of Florida scrub habitat than did the study site as a whole, and individuals selected Florida scrub habitat within their home ranges. For both selection of the home range within the study site and selection of habitats within the home range, mesic cutthroat and hydric swamp habitats were avoided. Standardized selection ratios of Florida scrub patches were positively correlated with lizard abundance. Several non-mutually exclusive mechanisms, including foraging success (prey abundance, prey vulnerability, and foraging efficiency), abundance of refugia, and thermoregulatory opportunity may underlie the selection of Florida scrub by M. flagellum. Historic rarity and anthropogenic loss and fragmentation of Florida scrub habitat, coupled with the long-distance movements, large home ranges, and selection of Florida scrub by M. flagellum, indicate that large contiguous tracts of land containing Florida scrub will be essential for the persistence of M. flagellum in central Florida.

We described the phylogeny of the salamandrid genus Neurergus in Turkey using statistical analyses on morphometric characters and a molecular analysis based on 12S and 16S rRNA genes. Two different species, Neurergus crocatus and Neurergus strauchii (N. s. strauchii and N. s. barani), are reported from new localities. Morphologically, the only significant differences between N. s. strauchii and N. s. barani were eye width, head width, and forelimb length in females; and eye width, head length, head width and inter-nostril distance in males in terms of 12 external morphometric measurements, with N. s. barani having larger values. According to PCA, species segregated along morphological axes and all the variables (except inter-limb and eye width in males and except longest toe forelimb, head width, eye width and inter-orbital distance in females) were important in separating species along these axes. We obtained a total of 833 basepairs (bp) of two mitochondrial genes (478 bp of 12S rRNA and 355 bp of 16S rRNA) from Neurergus crocatus (n  =  10), Neurergus strauchii strauchii (n  =  9) and N. s. barani (n  =  9). Neurergus crocatus differed from N. s. strauchii and N. s. barani with sequence divergences of 4.5%–5.1% and 5.4%–5.5%, respectively. However, among three haplotypes of N. s. strauchii, sequence divergence was very low (0.24% to 0.96%). The nucleotide difference between these two subspecies ranged from 0.48% to 1.2%. As a result, N. s. barani specimens in this study were not strongly differentiated from N. s. strauchii, suggesting that their distributions are either connected or only recently separated or that N. s. barani does not represent a distinct genetic unit.

Six species of Geophis occur in eastern Nuclear Central America: G. damiani, G. dunni, G. fulvoguttatus, G. hoffmanni, G. nephodrymus, and G. rhodogaster. These species are assigned to two species groups: the dubius group and the sieboldi group. Geophis nephodrymus is a species endemic to an isolated cloud forest locality in northwestern Honduras and was recently described based on a single specimen. Subsequently, an additional 16 specimens of G. nephodrymus were collected, demonstrating considerable morphological variation. This variation is characterized using features of morphology and color pattern. A key to the species of Geophis from eastern Nuclear Central America is provided. Of these six species, two meet the IUCN criteria for designation as Critically Endangered and two more as Endangered.

A new species of the Bokermannohyla martinsi group is described from Chapada Diamantina, State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. It is differentiated from the other two species in the group by the combination of slender body (quite robust in B. langei and B. martinsi), non-bifid distal prepollex (bifid in B. langei and B. martinsi), squared shape of the posterior portion of the distal prepollex (pointed process in B. langei and B. martinsi), large size and lateral inclination of the tympanum (quite reduced in B. langei, almost parallel to the longitudinal axis in both B. langei and B. martinsi), absence of dark bars in hidden areas of thighs (dark bars present on anterior, dorsal and posterior surfaces of thighs in B. martinsi), and shape of the supratympanic fold. We report for the first time the occurrence of a mental gland in 16 species of Bokermannohyla.

The Cerrado is one of the richest tropical savannas and is considered a biodiversity “hotspot.” It is estimated that, at the current rate of loss, the ecosystem will disappear by the year 2030. The number of new species being discovered in the Cerrado has increased linearly, especially over the last 50 years. We describe a new species of Cnemidophorus from the Jalapão region, in the northern Cerrado biome, Brazil. Linear discriminant analyses and a naïve Bayesian model indicated that a combination of meristic counts (femoral pores, scales around tail, prefemorals, dorsals, and supralabials) and categorical variables derived from pholidosis and coloration clearly distinguish the new species from its congeners. The new species is apparently parapatric with C. mumbuca, the two species occurring on opposite banks of the Novo River. The two species are ecologically and morphologically similar, sharing a small body size, a fixed clutch size of a single egg, and a small number of femoral pores. The new species is apparently endemic to the Jalapão region, in the northern portion of the Cerrado biome. Its small size and restricted geographic range are consistent with findings from Cerrado anurans that undescribed species tend to be small and have reduced ranges. These results highlight the urgency of biotic surveys in Cerrado in face of its accelerated pace of destruction.

We describe a new species of gekkonid lizard from Palawan Island, southwestern Philippines. The new species differs from all Philippine Cyrtodactylus and all other phenotypically similar Southeast Asian Cyrtodactylus by characteristics of external morphology, color pattern, and body size. The new species is common in low- to mid-elevation primary growth forest and disturbed lowland riparian gallery forests along the southeast coastal foothills of Mt. Mantalingajan, on southern Palawan Island. To complement the description of the new species and enable future taxonomic work, we redescribe Cyrtodactylus annulatus, revise its diagnosis, and delineate its geographic range. To clarify the taxonomic status of this species with respect to other Philippine taxa and because the holotype of C. annulatus was destroyed in WWII, we designate a neotype for this species.