They all come out at night… In a tropical region, the lush jungle, hot and humid climate, and high volume of rain usually make for the most productive herpetological field surveys, or the best “herping” (searching for reptiles and amphibians). Some people go fishing in their free time, but us “crazy” amphibian and reptile people go herpin’. And some times, as in...

Let’s talk insects So I found myself in an incredible forest at the foot of Mt. Huraw in northern Samar Island (eastern Philippines). The price of beauty for this rarely seen primary and secondary growth forest in the country was definitely the climate and insects. It was either about 100 degrees with 99% humidity, or about 90 degrees with torrential, down-pouring rain...

Biodiversity Survey in the Philippines This summer, I was fortunate enough to join a team of international biologists and participate in a four-week biodiversity study on the island of Samar in the southeastern Philippines. This expedition was funded by an NSF RAPID grant and lead by the University of Kansas (KU; my alma mater), and the University of Oklahoma (OU), both of...

Although landscape features such as mountains and rivers are recognized often as limiting factors to amphibian dispersal and gene flow, a limited number of studies have investigated such patterns across Southeast Asia. A perfect example of this is Thailand, located in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspot regions. Thailand represents the corridor between mainland Asia and the Sunda Shelf, a famous and...

Introduction A large array of species can accumulate on islands because the organisms that end up colonizing (establishing a new population in) these new habitats are physically separated from the original population they branched off from and thus proceed on their own evolutionary course. Successful colonization is affected by many factors, including ocean currents, competition between organisms, and the reproductive, behavioral, and...

We provide the first report on the diversity of amphibians and reptiles of the northern Sierra Madre Mountain Range, northeast Luzon Island, Philippines. Based on new data from extensive previously unpublished surveys, fieldwork, and museum records we can tell that this region is quite diverse. At least 101 herp species are present and now well documented in this region (29 amphibians, 30...

Adaptive radiations are the rapid accumulation of new species accompanied by adaptation to a diversity of habitats and environments that have specific requirements for habitation. This adaptation is typically observed through different corresponding physical changes. By broadly framing evolutionary radiations as the accumulation of both lineages and observable characteristics, comparisons among groups become focused not on the absolute number of lineages or...

Frogs in the genus Platymantis are extraordinarily diverse in the Philippine Archipelago, and new lineages within it are being discovered frequently. Species within Philippine Platymantis vary in appearance, calls, and preferred habitat. One form of Platymantis recorded during field surveys in Biak Na Bato National Park, assigned the name P. biak, had features of tree-dwelling frogs but appeared restricted to ground habitats....

Tess’s interest in herpetology was sparked when she was previously awarded with a fellowship from the Philippine Commission on Higher Education to the University of Kansas to complete her dissertation work on the phylogeography and conservation of the Philippine slender toads (genus Ansonia). In 2014, Tess was awarded a Fulbright Advanced Research Fellowship sponsored by Dr. Cameron Siler. Tess arrived in the...

Researchers want to know more about the evolutionary history and achieve a greater understanding of the diversity of land vertebrates in the Philippines. Though technological and statistical tools can help with this understanding, other problems have gotten in the way and research has only recently begun to accumulate. Looking at two species of Old World tree frogs – Rhacophorus bimaculatus and Kurixalus...

Such a beautiful species, Hylarana luzonensis occurs in the northern Philippines. Due to continued loss of its primary habitats around pristine river and stream systems, this species appears to be threatened in certain regions of its distribution. Females of this species are considerably larger than males, with greatly expanded toe pads....