Herpetological Review 51(4), 2020
811 BOOK REVIEWS 811
occupy, as they range from coral reefs to rocky escarpments and
alpine woodlands. A variety of good images of these habitats
is provided. Next is identification of snakes and some color
photographs showing the different head shapes of typhlopids,
along with a python and an elapid snake that are used to
demonstrate scalation. Individual scales are highlighted with
a key to these diagrams and also how to count mid-body scale
rows. Line drawings traditionally have been used to illustrate
scalation, but the provision of a color photograph with individual
scales highlighted, as in this case, is just as effective.
The following page explains how to use the book and
mentions that the taxonomy follows Cogger’s (2019) Reptiles
and Amphibians of Australia, with the exception of the addition
of newly described taxa. Here, the authors explain that the
book is designed to provide up-to-date information on each
of Australia’s snakes. This section is meant as an introductory
guide for assisting in identification. In many cases, key points
of reference to separate species from an individual’s nearest
relatives are provided. This page also explains the distribution
key used for different states and other areas of Australia. A
mention of the different potential danger rankings for different
groups of venomous snakes is listed here as well. The next few
pages contain a useful glossary.
From here the book moves into the species accounts with
a small discussion about the family preceding the species
information. The species accounts take up the bulk of the
book (pp. 17–163) and average about two species per page
with an accompanying photograph. Each account contains a
description, distribution, habitat and habits and a potential
danger ranking. Good useful information is provided in each of
these categories. It is usual for field guides to have a distribution
map for each species; I would have liked to see these included,
but were probably considered beyond the constraints of the
book.
In keeping with most field guides, dichotomous keys are not
provided and the identification of many species relies on the use
of a good photographic image, scale counts, distribution, scale
conditions and sometimes internal organ position. Both species
and subspecies are given their own entries. Subspecies are clearly
identified by the additional subspecific name in the entry’s
heading. The species accounts describe in detail two species
of file snakes, 18 pythons, 7 colubrids (including introduced
species), 119 terrestrial elapids, 36 marine elapids, 5 mangrove
snakes, and 48 blind snakes. Although it is technically correct
to list marine and terrestrial elapids together alphabetically, I
prefer these two groups treated separately for easier comparison.
The last few pages contain a complete checklist of the snakes of
Australia and in which states they occur. An IUCN conservation
rating also is applied to each species.
This book is a comprehensive guide to the Australian snake
fauna. It is designed as a field guide (180 × 125 mm) with soft
covers, glued binding, and semi-gloss paper. It will appeal to
field naturalists, bushwalkers, and serious herpetologists, and
should be included in the library of anyone with an interest in
Australian snakes.
LITERATURE CITED
COGGER, H. G. 2019. Reptiles & Amphibians of Australia. Updated
Seventh Edition. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria,
Australia. 1080 pp.
Herpetological Review, 2020, 51(4), X–X.
© 2020 by Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Identification Guide. Amphibians & Reptiles
of South Tanintharyi
George R. Zug and Daniel G. Muhcahy. 2019. Fauna & Flora
International – Myanmar Programme, Yangon. 202 pp. Free
e-book downloads from https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/342703728_Identification_Guide_Amphibians_Reptiles_
of_South_Tanintharyi. ISBN 978-99971-0-751-0.
INDRANEIL DAS
Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental
Conservation
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
e-mail: idas@unimas.my
Myanmar, renamed from Burma in
1989 by its military rulers, is a mid-sized
(676,575 km
2
, or about twice the size of
Italy) Southeast Asian nation, and the
northern-most member of the mostly
cohesive group of countries known as
ASEAN (the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations). Having joined the global
economy only in the late 1990s, it remains
an entrant in regional cooperation blocks
and world bodies in terms of development, despite the fact
that the first non-Scandinavian Secretary General of the United
Nations, U Thant (1909–1974), was from Burma.
It would be an understatement to refer to the herpetofauna
of Myanmar as poorly understood. In fact, the most recent
herpetological publications for the country, prior to the
engagement of the United States National Museum (USNM)
in 1997 (see Zug et al. 1998), were scarce works published
after World War II, such as Hundley (1964); to this day, the
syntheses of Theobald (1868) and especially the three-volume
compilation of Smith (1931, 1935, 1943) continue to be cited.
Modern research (apart from reviews based on the literature
or museum specimens, e.g., Dowling and Jenner 1988) began
with the studies by George Zug, Emeritus Curator of the USNM,
and his colleagues from that institution and associates from the
California Academy of Sciences. This research has led to species
descriptions and faunal revisions (Slowinski et al. 2001), range
extensions (Lee et al. 2015, 2019; Platt et al. 2018; Wogan et al.
2008), collection of genetic material in support of future studies
(Mulcahy et al. 2018), and the production of resources valuable
for health and medicine (Leviton et al. 2003).
The current work, published by Flora and Fauna International
(FFI) Myanmar Programme, stems from the field research by
Zug and his colleague, Dan Mulcahy, of the Global Genome
Initiative, a specialist on analytical laboratory procedures and
quality assessment of genomic collections. Mulcahy joined the
herpetological surveys in southern Tanintharyi in 2014 to assist
the FFI, primarily to convince the government to establish two
national parks. In the succeeding three years (2015–2017), he
was assisted by the faculty and students of Myeik University to
prepare inventories of the region. Thus, in a way, the book can be
considered a product of citizen science. Notably, it was submitted
for publication in 2019 and published in the latter part of the