Vol. 7. pp. 80-84

Asiatic Herpetological Research

1997

A Brief Herpetological Excursion To Wai Ling Ding, Wanshan Islands, SouthChina Sea
James Lazell. Michael Lau, 2 and Wenhua Lu
1

The Conservation Agency, 6 Swinburne St., Jamestown, RI 02835, U.S.A.;

1

Department of Ecology andBiodiversity, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Rd.. Hong Kong.

Abstract.

Two frogs and three lizards are recorded from Wai Ling Ding, one of the larger Wanshan Islands-southwest of Hong Kong,inGuangdong Province. China (the number of additional unpublished records forHong Kong Territory for both frogs in parentheses): Kaloula p. pulchra (7), Rhacophorus
orleucomystax"Polypeddtes megacephalus" {7), Hemidactylus bowringi, Eumeces quadrilineatus, andScincella modesta. Ours is the first record for S. modesta in Guangdong Province; ontogenetic and elevationalislands within

data are presented for this species.

Biogeography, Wanshan. Hong Kong, Anura. Kaloula. Rhacophorus. Polypeddtes, Squamata,

Key words:

Hemidactylus, Eumeces, Scincella modesta.

^«

Q<#— *r#<T#<b$ t

S3

^VX?

*^Mm^c^>^tNFigure 1.

The Wanshan Islands and adjacent portions of Hong Kong Territory.

1.

Da and Xiao Wanshan(the "Ladrones"); 2, Zhizhou; 3, Dangan; 4, Jiapeng; 5, Lantau (Tai Yue Shan); and 6, Hong Kong Island.

Arrow indicates Wai Ling Ding. Dashed line indicates part of the southern and western border of Hong

Kong Territory.

Bar, top left, is 5 km.

1997

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 7, p. 81

Oo«3
Island localities for Kaloula p. pulchra vouchered by MCZ specimens (solid dots) or from Karsen
986 (open circles). 1 Hong Kong; 2, Cheung Chau; 3. Chek Lap Kok (now blasted away); 4. Siu-AChau, Soko Islands; 5, Po Toi; 6. Yim Tin Tsai; 7, Peng Chau; 8 Tai Lei; 9, Lamma; and 1 0, Lantau (Tai YueShan). Star is Wai Ling Ding. Bar, bottom right, is 5 km.

Figure 2.

et al.,

1,

Introduction

Results

More than 40 vegetated islands lie south and west of

We were able to collect for only two hours during

the British Territory of Hong Kong, on the inundated

overcast weather with intermittent showers.

continental

shelf of theSouth China Sea. within

Province.
Collectively, the group isWanshan; two of the larger islands, in theextreme southwest, were well known historically asHeavy
midday and soon terminated ourOnly five species were vouchered. All speci-rain developed atGuangdongefforts.

calledmens are in the Museum of Comparative Zoology

the Ladrones:DaWanshan and XiaoWanshan today(MCZ).
1.

Kaloula p. pulchra (Anura: Microhylidae). MCZ
Found under debris on a hillside, ca 60 m(Empson 1992). To the north lies the Zhizhou cluster,

1and to the east and southeast lie the Dangan and Jiap-

above sealevel.

eng groups, respectively. Centrally located is the Sanmen complex, the largest of which is Wai Ling Ding,
ca 3.3 km" and 310

m above sealevel, some 25 km

southwest of Hong Kong (Fig.

1).

Access to these islands has heretofore been very
limited (Pan etislands withinal..

1985), while the100 or moreHong Kong Territory have received

considerable attention (Karsen et al.. 1986: Zhao andAdler 1993).

In

an attempt to develop commerce,

Chinese authorities now permit regular tourist accessto at least Wai Ling Ding from Hong Kong.

the trip on 20 July 1994.

We made16225.

lected.

ThisA second individual was not colabundant species

iswidespread on

Hong Kong and Cheung
Chau (Karsen et al.. 1986), Chek Lap Kok (MCZ115497-502; population now extirpated by destruccoastal

islands

includingtion of the island),(Lazell 1988a;

Siu-A-Chau in the Soko Islands

MCZ 109400). Po Toi (MCZ

Yim Tin Tsai (MCZ

1117716-8), Peng Chau

16089),(MCZ109403). Lamma (MCZ 109402), many localities on

Lantau (e.g. MCZ

116081-8. Shui Hau). and even tiny

Tai Lei off Peng Chau, area 2.9 ha (MCZ110964-5).

See Fig. 2.
2.

Rhacophorus leucomystax ("Polypedates mega-cephalus")(Anura:Ranidae or "Rhacophoridae"),Vol. 7, p. 82

Asiatic Herpetological Research"

Figure 3. Localities for Rhacophorus leucomystax or

1997

Polypedates megacephalus" vouchered by MCZ

specimens (solid dots).
Hong Kong; 2, Chek Lap Kok (now blasted away): 3. Tai-A-Chau, and 4, Siu-AChau, Soko Islands; 5, Ma Wan; 6 Yim Tin Tsai; 7, Peng Chau; 8. Kau Sai Chau; 9, Lamma; and 0, Lantau(Tai Yue Shan). Star is Wai Ling Ding. Bar. bottom right, is 5 km.
1,1MCZ 116226.

Tadpoles were also collected for theDepartment of Zoology, University of Hong Kong.
The voucher is a metamorph. All specimens werefound in rain water pools on the hillside above the village at about

70 m elevation.

judged on evaluation of topotypic material. Nor do
we believe the minor differences noted by Matsui etal.

(1986) necessarily imply species-level distinction.

Karyotypes often vary within species (e.g. Schmid et1994). A demonstration of sympatry would beal.,

The nomenclature for this frog is unsettled. Zhao

convincing.

and Adler 1993: 74) notwithstanding, the sole consis-

Liem (1970)

New Territories mainland andIn addition to the("Polypedates" from Rhacophorus is the diplasiocoelous vertebra of the former. One of us (JL) finds

Hong Kong Island, noted by Karsen et al. (1986), thisspecies has been vouchered on Chek Lap Kok (MCZ
15709-36; population now extirpated by destruction

this characterof thetentcharacter

given

byseparating

1MCZ
MCZ

Siu-A-Chau (Lazell1988a:frogs and questions whether any genus founded onsuch a single character could be monophyletic. Zhao109426-30) and Tai-A-Chau (Lazell1988a;and Adler (1993: 156) accepted the notion of Matsuiet al. 1986) that Chinese specimens should be called109425), Ma Wan (MCZ

megacephalus (type locality Hong Kong: Hallowell.
1861) "based on comparisons of Taiwanese andBornean specimens." Taiwan and Borneo are bothChau (MCZ 116227) in the Port Shelter Islands, andprone

to individual variation in adult(continental shelf islands.

Borneo is more than twiceisland),110969-71)

intheSoko Islands. Peng Chau (MCZ109437), Yim Tin Tsaiseverallocalities

15737-40). Lamma (MCZ(MCZ 109437) and Kau Sai
1on Lantau(e.g.

Shui Hau,MCZ

115742-4). See Fig. 3.
3.

Hemidactylus bowringi (Squamata: Gekkonidae).

as far from Wai Ling Ding (and Hong Kong) as is Tai-MCZ 179462-3. Both were collected under debris inwan, but we see no rationale for assigning populations
on that basis, and opine that this species, abundant atthe village

Hong Kong (Karsenetal.,

1986:31),

should bearea at the northwest of the Island.

eral others were seen.

Sev-

This is probably the most ubiq-

uitous and widespread

member of the Hong Kong

1997

1861 ("1860").

Hallowell, E.

Discussion

Report upon the Rep-tilia of the North Pacific exploring expedition, underIn addition to our five species. Pan et al. (1985) record

three1997

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 7. p. 84

species of frogs:

Rana guentheri,R.

limno-

Li and Pan (1995) added

charis, and R. rugulosa.

Kaloula pulchra.

command of Capt. John Rogers, U.S.N. Proceedingsof the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia12:480-510.

Karsen. S„ M. Lau, and A. Bogadek.

We saw only the extreme northwest portion of Wai
had all theLing Ding. The village where we landedofa
typical, impoverished,appearances and aromas
community burdened by an influx of workers
fishing

attractive to tourists.

attempting to construct a facade
This community was called simply "Ling DingTsuen" (Nowhere Alone Town). The area we saw wasof
extremely ecologically degraded with vast areas
withbarren rock interspersed
cutgrass {Panicumsp.).

There were clumps and strips of scrub vegeta-tion

largely

consistingof nativespecies

suchasMelastoma sp., Dicranopteris sp., and Rhodomyrtus

1986.

Hong

Kong amphibians and reptiles. Urban Council, HongKong. 136

pp.

Lazell.

1988a.

J.

Soko Islands, South China Sea.

Explorers Journal 66(2):80-85.
1988b.

Lazell, J.

Herpetology in South China. Her-

petological Review L9(3):49-51.
Li,

Z..

andJ.

Pan.

Guangdong Province

1995.

Chiamphibians: fauna] regions and biogeography.
Seriesnese Amphibian Biogeography. Herpetological
8:125-130.

Liem. D. 1970.

The morphology, systematics. andThe trees, however, were exotic species:

evolution of the Old World treefrogs (Rhacophoridae

Acacia confusa, Casaurina sp.. and unidentified euca-and Hyperoliidae). Fieldiana Zoology 57(1107): vii+lypts.

145 pp.

tomentosa.

In view of the number of endemic species known

from Hong Kong islands, including some found at low
elevation

such

as

Philautus

romeri,brachykolos, and Dibamus bogadeki,

Megophrys
WanshantheIslands will repay a thorough investigation.

Matsui.

M., T.

Seto,andT Utsunomiya.

1986.

Acoustic and karyotypic evidence for specific separation of Pohpedates megacephalus from P. leucomystax.

Journal of Herpetology 20(4):483-489.

Pan,C. Liu, and X. Qian.

1985 Studies on amphib-ian fauna of the mainland and some adjacent islands

Acknowledgmentsof Guangdong Province.

We are indebted to ornithologist Dr. Martin Williams,

4(3):200-208.

of Cheung Chau. Hong Kong, for arranging our trip,

Schmid. M.. W. Feichtinger, I. Nanda, R. Schakowski.
Visbal Garcia. J. Manzanilla Puppo, and A.
R.
Fernandez Badillo. 1994. An extraordinarily low dip-and to Nick Goodyer. Brian Moseley. and Eddie Wu

Chon Wai for assistance in the field. Our trip wasandsponsored in part by The Conservation Agency
the Explorers Club.

loid

Acta Herpetologica Sinica

chromosome number in the reptile Gonatodes

taniae (Squamata. Gekkonidae).

Journal of Heredity

85:255-260.

Literature Cited
Empson. H. 1992. Mapping Hong Kong: A historicalatlas. Government Information Services, Hong Kong.
249 pp.

Zhao. E. and K. Adler.
10:522 pp.

Herpetology of China.
Amphibians and Reptiles

1993.

Society for the Study of