Amphibians and Reptiles of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, An Atlas and Field Guide

Amphibians and Reptiles of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: An Atlas and Field Guide. Ahmad M. Disi, David Modrý, Petr Necas and Lina Rifai (2001). 408 pp. (215 x 150 mm). Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. £37.50 (cloth). Next comes a very short list of Used abbreviations (0.5 p.), obviously not in the sense of second-hand abbreviations, but simply meaning abbreviations used. I shall return later to the mini-flaw of a bit of slight linguistic roughness. The list is unique in catering to the non-academic in explaining that, for example, N means north, northern; and to the non-European in explaining that I . XII mean January . December. The biological content begins with Geography and climate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (7 pp.) and the following Biogeography of Jordan (4 pp.), well illustrated with maps and landscape photographs [in Fig. 7, “Rough distribution of the sandy areas of Jordan (dots)”, the dots must have been too fine as the map looks as if all sand had been blown away]. As rightly explained in Böhme’s Preface, the location of Jordan between the mesic Mediterranean, the semi-arid IranoTuranian, the arid Arabian desert and the tropical Sudanian ecozones, increases the appeal of the book in two ways. On the one hand, the Kingdom’s herpetofauna is enriched by contributions from all of these directions; on the other hand, most of the book is relevant to adjacent areas. The text brings numerous examples of trees and shrubs, and of amphibians and reptiles, representing within Jordan these diverse biogeographical and ecological regions. No formal statistics are presented to show how much of the herpetofauna is derived from each region, and indeed such statistics would neither improve our understanding nor serve any other real purpose. However, many readers may prefer to see some summary statement of the number of species in the herpetofauna and in the book. I counted 89 (of certain occurrence), of which four are anurans and four are marine turtles. Herpetological research in Jordan, history and present state (3 pp.) gives an interesting account of the involvement of persons and institutions in local herpetological research. Naturally this is not an account of the development of the understanding of various aspects of the herpetofauna. Field observation and collecting of amphibians and reptiles (10 pp.) gives expert practical advice (signed separately by coauthors Modrý and Necas) intended to advance the knowledge of the herpetofauna. The main threats and conservation of herpetofauna (4 pp.) and Conservation of Jordanian nature, protected areas (5 pp.), respectively, explain the threats to the herpetofauna and describe Jordan’s nature reserves and national parks, seven locations spread across the country and representing its diverse ecology. The section on Reptiles and amphibians in the cultural heritage of Jordan (4 pp.) is not something necessarily expected in a field guide but is uniquely enlightening to the culture-minded. Would you expect that whereas “he is a snake” implies a sly and treacherous person both in English and in Israeli Hebrew (next door to Jordan), in Jordanian Arabic this phrase means an old person, because snakes are believed to live long? This section ends with a recipe for “Dabb Mansaf”, a rice and meat dish The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (al-Mamlakah alUrdunniya al-Hashimiya) is in everyday life known simply as Jordan. Geographically, Jordan bridges the gap between Iraq in the east and the Jordan River in the west. Faunistically, the book fills the gap between Leviton et al.’s (1992) Handbook to Middle East Amphibians and Reptiles (covering only a fraction of the Middle East, i.e. the triangle Greece-Iran-Sudan, according to British WW2 usage) and assorted texts on Israel’s herpetofauna, all in Hebrew (recently: Werner, 1995; Bouskila & Amitai, 2001). Herpetologically, Disi et al.’s work – although not flawless – surpasses all of these neighbouring books put together. The book’s 408 pages (the count begins with the half title page) are allocated as follows: Opening,