Abstract
A total of 40 species of reptiles was recorded within two herpetological surveys during May 2007 and April 2008 on Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, northeastern Vietnam: one species of turtle, 19 species of lizards, and 20 species of snakes. Nineteen species (47.5%) were new records for the island. Compared with previous herpetological surveys on Cat Ba Island, the diversity of terrestrial reptiles recorded during our field work was five times higher than given in Darevsky (1990) and two times higher than indicated by Nguyen & Shim (1997). Taxonomic comparisons revealed that one lizard is endemic, the eublepharid gecko Goniurosaurus catbaensis (Ziegler et al. 2008), and another new skink species, Sphenomorphus tonkinensis (Nguyen et al. 2011); the divergent status of other squamate species (e.g., Pareas cf. hamptoni, Viridovipera cf. stejnegeri) is still under examination.
Key words: Vietnam, Cat Ba Archipelago, Diversity, new record
T.Q. Nguyen (Nguyễn), R. Stenke, H.X. Nguyen (Nguyễn) & T. Ziegler. 2011. The Terrestrial Reptile Fauna of the Biosphere Reserve Cat Ba Archipelago, Hai Phong, Vietnam. Bonner Zoologische Monographien. (57)
