A Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles from the Cardamom Mountains, Southwestern Cambodia Bryan L. Stuart and David A. Emmett Abstract We describe a collection of 78 species of amphibians and reptiles from the Cardamom Mountains, southwestern Cambodia. One frog (Calluella guttulata), six lizards (Draco taeniopterus, Dasia olivacea, Lygosoma bowringii, Scincella melanosticta, Sphenomorphus stellatum, and Ptychozoon lionotum), and four snakes (Boiga dendrophila, B. multomaculata, Rhabdophis nigrocinctus, and Xenochrophis trianguligerus) are reported from Cambodia for the first time. Anthopogenically modified environments contain mostly species having broad geographic ranges in Southeast Asia. However, the frog and lizard faunas of intact environments in the Cardamom Mountains are largely distinct from those in the mountainous areas of eastern Cambodia. Introduction Most of Cambodia consists of low, flat, highly seasonal terrain in the Tonle Sap Basin and Mekong River floodplain. However, three areas in the country have sufficient topography to harbor swift, rocky streams, and these areas would be expected to contain an assemblage of amphibians and reptiles distinct from that of the lowlands. First, the hills and mountains in Mondolkiri, Ratanakiri, and Stung Treng Pro-vinces in the extreme east form the lower slopes of the Langbian (= Da Lat) and Kontum Plateaus of the Annamite (= Truong Son) Mountains. Second, the Dangrek Mountains on the northern border of Cambodia and some satellite hills in north-central Cambodia form the southern escarpment of the Khorat Basin of northeastern Thailand. Third, the Cardamom ( = Kravanh) Mountains form a coastal and insular mountain range on the Gulf of Thailand in southwestern Cambodia and a small part of adjacent Thailand (Fig. 1). Historically, some authors have referred to the southeastern, mainland block of the Cardamom Mountains as the Elephant (= Dom Rei or Kamchay) Mountains. However, this southeastern block is no more isolated geographically than are other outlying blocks that are referred to the Carda-moms, and so here the Elephant Mountains are treated as synonymous with the Cardamom Mountains. The Cardamom Mountains contain the high-est, wettest, and largest tract of intact evergreen forest in Cambodia and are most notable for their geographic isolation from other large mountain ranges. The summit of Phnom ( = Mount) Aural in the Cardamom Mountains is the highest point in Cambodia at 1771 m elevation. The Cardamom Mountains receive very high annual rainfall relative to surround-ing areas, as the southern, coastal slopes are directly hit by the summer southwesterly monsoon (May-October) that picks up mois-ture for precipitation from the Gulf of Thai-land (Maxwell, 2001). These coastal slopes receive 3000-5000 mm of annual rainfall, the highest in Cambodia, while the northern, inland slopes are slightly drier because of a rain shadow effect and receive 2000-3000 mm of annual rainfall (Gaussen et al., 1967). The extensive remaining forest cover in the Carda-mom Mountains has attracted considerable attention for landscape-level biodiversity con-servation efforts (e.g., Daltry & Momberg, 2000). FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, N.S., NO. 109, OCTOBER 3, 2006, PP. 1-27
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