Vol. 6, pp. 49-52

Asiatic Herpetological Research|Junc 1995

On the Distribution of Emydid Turtles and the Anuran Genus Microhyla in
the Philippines

Maren Gaulke
Muhliusstr. 84, 24103 Kiel, Germany

Abstract. -Cuora amboinensis kamaroma

Rummler and Fritz and Microhyla annectens Boulenger are

The Philippines range of Cyclemys
dentata (Gray) is extended to the Sulu Archipelago. The distribution of emydids and the genus Microhyla inreported from the Sulu Archipelago in the southwestern Philippines.
the Philippines is discussed.

Key Words: Reptilia, Testudines, Emydidae, Cuora amboinensis amboinensis, Cuora amboinensis
kamaroma, Cyclemys dentata, Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae, Microhyla annectens, Philippines,distribution.

120°E

MINDANAO*&^JoloO

a<?Osiasio^Bubuan^

6°N

<bV
^awitawi

Sa*ga^ A*u<D LSanga^PV
Bongaof"'Sibutuft
SitankiFIG. 1*<L^^D))

Generalized map of the Sulu Archipelago.

Introduction

The Philippines

separated into
different faunistic regions (Brown andAlcala, 1970, 1980; Dickerson, 1928; Inger,The Sulu
1954; Leviton, 1963).
Archipelago, an island chain situatedbetween Basilan and Mindanao to the east,and Sabah, Borneo, to the west, is one ofare© 1995 by Asiatic Herpetological Researchthese regions.
Faunistically it is moreclosely related to Borneo than to thePhilippines. The only comprehensive workon the herpetofauna of the Sulu Archipelago
Additions to it'sis from Taylor (1918).

herpetofaunal record include for example
Gaulke (1993, 1994), Leviton (1963) andTaylor (1922a, 1922b). Almost nothing is
known of the emydid turtles of the region,

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 6, p. 50

and knowledge on the anurans

isalsoThis work contributes to both ofthese subjects, and discusses the distributionof taxa in the groups in other parts of thescarce.

Philippines.

Material and Methods

The author has conducted field surveys
in different regions of the Philippines since1984. In the years 1990, 1991 and 1992 thefollowing islands of the Sulu Archipelago

were visited: Bongao, Sanga Sanga, Siasi,
Sibutu, Tawitawi and Jolo (Fig. 1). Mostof the turtles found were photographed andreleased after examination.

Three turtles (one Cuora amboinensis
kamaroma, two Cyclemys dentata) are kept
alive by the author, the microhylid frog
(SMF 74908) and one C. dentata shell(SMF 74909) are deposited in theofthecollection
herpetologicalundNaturmusem
Forschungsinstitut
Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany. The C. amboinensis subspecies
were identified after Rummler and Fritze(1991), and the frog after Inger (1966).

Results and Discussion

Emydidae
Cyclemys dentata.- On June 9, 1990, an
adult specimen of C. dentata was caught inan undisturbed swampy lowland forest at
Languyan on Tawitawi. It's faeces showedthat it had fed on ripe figs before capture.

June 1995

While it is common1921).
throughout the Palawan Province, records
from Leyte are rare. Palawan and Leyte
belong to different faunistic regions, andwere never connected by a land bridge.
Therefore it is surprising that C. dentata is
known from both regions, but fromnowhere in between. Three explanations
can be offered for this disjunct distribution:
1. C. dentata exists on other Philippine
Islands, but has not been recorded (orreported) until now. 2. C. dentata
previously occurred on other Philippine
Taylorislands, but became extinct subsequently onmost of them, with a relict population

surviving on Leyte. 3. C. dentata neverreached the more eastern Islands of thePhilippines, and the Leyte records rely on
specimens introduced by man. This is notunlikely, since people often keep turtles aspets and for medicinal purposes (as rheumaremedy) leading to their translocation. C.

dentata kept in captivity on Negros andCebu were obtained on Palawan (pers.
obs.).

The disjunct Philippine distribution ofC. dentata is remarkably echoed by the third
emydid turtle from the Philippines, theendemic Heosemys leytensis (Taylor) whichis also reported from Leyte and Palawan,Since bothbut no in between island.
distribution records of this rare turtle rely on
single individuals (Timmermann and Auth
1988; Taylor 1921), no assumptions on thereasons for the disjunct distributions can bemade.

The Sulu Archipelago and Palawan lie inboth Philippine entryways from Borneo,

and 1992 several, mainly
juvenile, specimens of C. dentata were
found in swamps and small creeks indifferent areas of Tawitawi (Batu Batu,Magsaggaw), proving that it is not a rare
It has not yet beenturtle on the island.
found on any other island of the Sulu

suggesting that the C. dentata populations
have their origin on Borneo, where thisturtle is widespread.

Archipelago.

Jolo.

In1991

Previously the known range of C
dentata in the Philippines included only the.

Palawan Province (Balabac, Palawan,Calamian Islands) and Leyte (Alcala 1986;

Cuora amboinensis.- In 1990 the author
found Cuora amboinensis on the islands ofSanga Sanga and Tawitawi, and in 1992 onDuring this period C. amboinensis
was reported from Jolo (Rummler and Fritz
1991), who identified two specimens from(MNHN 6152:1-2, Musium NationaleJolod'HistoireParis) as C. a.
amboinensis, as they did all Philippine

NaturelleJune 1995

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 6, p. 51

Rummler and Fritz (1991) consider thehigh domed C. a. kamaroma and the flat C.
a. amboinensis as the evolutionary extremesof C.

amboinensis, whilst the third

subspecies C. a. couro (Schweigger), whichon Sumatra and Java, showsintermediate characteristics. They believe itoccurs

possible that in the future high domed andflat forms of C. amboinensis may be found

FIG. 2. Plastral view of three Cuora amboinensis
from Jolo, showing that almost no dark markings
are present on the plastron, as is typical for thesubspecies C. a. kamaroma Rummler and Fritz.

material

However, thethey studied.
specimens found during my trips on Sanga
Sanga, Tawitawi and Jolo do not belong to
the nominate form, but to the recently
described C. a. kamaroma Rummler andFritz. They have none, or very few, dark
patches on their plastron (Fig. 2) and a highcarapace, as is typical for this subspecies.
U. Fritz, who kindly examined photos ofsome of the turtles captured on Jolo,
mentioned that they are slightly flatter thanother C. a. kamaroma he had seen, and themarginal scutes were slightly more visible

from above. Nevertheless he confirms thedetermination as C. a. kamaroma, assumingthat some interbreeding with Philippine C.
a. amboinensis may have occurred.

sympatric on Borneo, proving that they
belong to different species. The record ofC. a. kamaroma from the Sulu Archipelagoshows that the Bornean form could reach theoutskirts of the Philippines, but does not
resolve the question of their phylogenetic
affinities.
It is surprising that within thePhilippines two significantly different forms
are found. C. a. amboinensis must either
have developed from C. a. kamaroma, orreached the Philippines, via Mindanao, fromthe Moluccas or Sulawesi.

Microhylidae

On March 18, 1991, the author collected
one specimen of Microhyla annectens
Boulenger (SMF 74908) in leaf litter besidea small pond in a lowland forest atMagsaggaw, Tawitawi. The species has awide distribution on Borneo, Malaysia andThailand, but was previously unknown
from the Philippines.

Only one other member of the genus
Microhyla has been recorded from theC. a. kamaroma, the most widespread of
the three subspecies of C. amboinensis, isFischer (1885) reported
Philippines.
achatina(Boie) from Southern
Microhyla

known from Borneo, the Southeast Asian
mainland, and now the Sulu Archipelago.

Mindanao, based onC. a. amboinensis has a wide distribution

over the Philippines, being reported fromBacoo, Cebu, Dinagat, Leyte, Luzon,
Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Polillo andSamar (Boettger 1886; Rummler and Fritz
1991; Taylor 1921), but occurs on otherPhilippine Islands as well. The author, forexample, has collected a few specimens on
Masbate (currently being kept alive).
Outside the Philippines, C. a. amboinensis
is known from Sulawesi and the Moluccas.
The Palawan Province is presently the only
known Philippine Province not inhabited byany subspecies of C. amboinensis.

a single specimen.
this frog, butlisted

Boettger (1886)
mentioned that the specimen, according to acomment by G. A. Boulenger, mostprobably is not M. achatina but a Kaloula
species. Taylor (1921) listed M. achatina
without questioning the determination.
However, he doubted the accuracy of thelocality record, assuming that it might havecome from another country. He also
assumed that it might be from one of thehigh, little explored mountains on Southern
Mindanao and therefore had not
subsequently been found. Inger (1954) andAlcala (1986) finally do not include

M.

Vol. 6, p. 52

June 1995

Asiatic Herpetological Research

achatina in the Philippine amphibian faunaanymore.

Whether the record of M. achatina fromthe Philippines is true or not (the specimen

no longer available) must remain open,
however, the new record shows that thegenus Microhyla has reached theisPhilippines.

GAULKE, M.

1993. First record of the polydont
snake Sibynophis geminatus geminatus (Boie,1826) from the Philippines, with a discussion ofSibynophis bivittatus (Boulenger, 1894).
Herpetological Journal (3): 151-152.

GAULKE, M.

1994. Contribution to the snake
fauna of the Sulu Archipelago, with the descriptionof a new subspecies of Dendrelaphis caudolineatus(Gray, 1834). Herpetological Journal.

Acknowledgments

INGER, R. F. 1954. Systematic and zoogeographyof Philippine amphibia.
Fieldiana:
Zoology

I am grateful to Mr. R. Miller and Mr.
Th. Borromeo, who were helpful in finding
turtles on the Sulu Archipelago, and to theProvincial Department of Environment andNatural Resources in Bongao for allowing

me to conduct surveys in their area, and tocollect a few specimens. Dr. W. Branchkindly revised the manuscript, giving many
helpful comments.

33(4):183-531.

INGER, R. F. 1966. The systematics andzoogeography of the amphibia of Borneo. Fieldiana:
Zoology 52(1966): 1-402.

LEVITON, A. E.

1963.

zoogeography of Philippine

Remarks onterrestrial

Proceedings of the Californian Academy of Science,
fourth series 31(15):369-416.

RUMMLER, H.-J., AND U. FRITZ.

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ALCALA, A. C.

1986. Guide to Philippine floraand fauna. Vol. X. Amphibians and reptiles. JMCPress, Quezon City.

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