Das, I.

Wallach, V.

Unimas Institutional Repository

Staff from the St. George Island State Park examined the sec-ond nest for hatching success in mid-August. This clutch, com-prised of 139 unhatched eggs of similar size ranges as the first documented clutch, included 96 yolked eggs (Ogles, pers. comm.). Once again, no eggs appeared to contain embryos. These clutch sizes, although representing only two samples, appear consistent with previous studies which exclude smaller, yolkless eggs from clutch size estimates (Hirth and Ogren 1987; Leslie et al. 1996). Hirth and Ogren (1987) found leatherbacks to lay an average clutch of 81.57 eggs on beaches near Laguna Jalova, Costa Rica. Poor nest site selection, infertility, embryonic mortality, poach-ing, predation, and root development have been recognized in the past as reasons for reduced hatching success for leatherback and green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas (Leslie et al. 1996; Whitmore and Dutton 1985). Due to the few historical records of leather-backs in northwest Florida and the characteristics of these two clutches, evidence seems to suggest infertility as the reason for lack of embryonic development and hatching success. The pan-handle region of Florida, especially Franklin County, is relatively undeveloped in comparison to other regions of the state. Certainly the possibility exists that leatherback females nested on remote beaches in the past, thus escaping human detection. Further moni-toring of local nesting beaches in years to come may provide ad-ditional knowledge concerning the nesting density of the leather-back sea turtle and a better estimate of the number of nesting females in northwest Florida. Acknowledgments.-We thank Thom Lewis of the U. S. Fish and Wild-life Service and Roy Ogles and Bruce Drye of the St. George Island State Park for their time and support in monitoring sea turtle nesting in Franklin County and, in particular, the leatherback nests of 1995. We also extend our appreciation to Joe Mitchell of the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park for contributing information from past leatherback nesting events on Gulf County beaches and to Karen Mitchell of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Pascagoula, Mississippi, for providing leath-erback sighting locations for the Florida panhandle. LrIERATURE CITED ERNST, C. H., J. E. LovicH, AND R. W. BARBOUR. 1994. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washing-ton, D.C. 578 pp. HIRTH, H. F., AND L. H. OGREN. 1987. Some aspects of the ecology of the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea at Laguna Jalova, Costa Rica. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 56.14 pp. LEBUFF, C. R. 1990. The loggerhead sea turtle in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Caretta Research Inc., Sanibel, Florida. 216 pp. LESLIE, A. J., D. N. PENICK, J. R. SPOTILA, AND F. V. PALADIN°. 1996. Leath- erback Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, Nesting and Nest Success at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, in 1990-1991. Chel. Cons. Biol. 2(2):159-168. MEYLAN, A., B. SCHROEDER, AND A. MOSIER. 1995. Sea turtle nesting ac- tivity in the State of Florida 1979-1992. Florida Mar. Res. Publ. No. 52.51 pp. NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE AND U. S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SER- VICE. 1992. Recovery plan for leatherback turtles in the U. S. Carib-bean, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. National Marine Fisheries Ser-vice, Washington, D.C. 65 pp. ROSTAL, D. C., F. V. PALADIN°, R. M. PATTERSON, AND J. R. SPOTILA. 1996. Reproductive physiology of nesting leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) at Las Baulas National Park, Costa Rica. Chel. Cons. Biol. 2(2):230-236. RUCKDESCHEL, C., L. Ellis, AND C. R. SHOOP. 1982. Dermochelys coria- cea (leatherback sea turtle). Nesting. Herpetol. Rev. 13:126. WlirrmoRE, C. P., AND P. H. DurroN. 1985. Infertility, embryonic mortal-ity and nest-site selection in leatherback and green sea turtles in Suriname. Biol. Cons. 34:251-272. YERGER, R. W. 1965. The leatherback turtle on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Copeia 1965:365-366. Scolecophidian Arboreality Revisited INDRANEIL DAS* and V. WALLACH Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA e-mail (VW): vwallach@oeb.harvard.edu  *Present address: Centre for Herpetology, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust Post Bag 4, Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu 603104, India Arboreality in scolecophidians was reviewed recently by Gaulke (1995). We compile here records that are hitherto unpublished as well as reports that were omitted in Gaulke's review on arboreality in the Typhlopidae and Leptotyphlopidae. On 8 March 1994, an adult Ramphotyphlops braminus (ZSI 25115) was found under peeling bark, ca. 1.5 m vertically above substrate and ca. 5 m up along a reclining termite-infested dead coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) on Car Nicobar (09° 10'N; 92°47'E), Bay of Bengal, India. The animal presumably was feeding on worker termites, among which it was found. Data associated with the following museum specimens provide additional evidence for arboreality among scoledophidians: one Leptotyphlops tenellus (USNM 286953) from a palm tree in St. George, Trinidad, and another (USNM-field no. 175504), collected from under bark of a tree more than 1 m off ground; Ramphotyphlops angusticeps (FMNH 41968), 4 m up in a palm tree, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; and R. depressus (USNM 121256), found climbing a tree, Manus Island, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea (fide letter 170465 by Emil Bogen to the USNM). There are several other anecdotal literature records of arboreality in scolecophidians that were cited by Gaulke (1995), including R. angusticeps at night in fronds of a small palm tree about 4 m above the ground, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands (McCoy 1980); five R. suluensis from 2-3 m in height in a tree at night, Sulu Archipelago, the Philippines (Gaulke 1995, 1996); R. nigrescens 5 m up on a she-oak tree (Casuarina sp.), Australia (Shine and Webb 1990); and L. dulcis 1 m up in a sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis), Waco, Texas, USA (Plsekfide Gehlbach in Vanzolini 1970). Additional literature records suggesting arboreal activity include one Leptotyphlops albifrons ca. 0.5 m up the rough bark of a half dead tree, another coiled around a live bamboo twig in daytime close to the ground, Guyana (Beebe 1946), and a third under the bark of a tree (Mole 1924); L. dulcis in nest of screech owl (Otus asio), Texas, USA (Gehlbach and Baldridge 1987); L macrolepis ca. 0.6 m up a vertical concrete wall, Colombia (Dunn 1944); L. macrorhynchus from thatched roof of a house, Pakistan (Minton 1966); L. tenellus ca. 2 m up a tree trunk, Brazil (Vanzolini 1970); L. tesselatus in the wall of an old adobe house in Lima, Peru (Schmidt and Walker 1943); Ramphotyphlops australis from a dead standing blackboy [burnt yacca grass tree], Xanthorrhoea sp., in a dry swamp, Australia (Chapman and Dell 1975); one R. braminus ca. 2 m up on a dead mango tree, Mangtfera indica, Australia (Swanson 1981), and one in an insect hole within a piece of sugarcane (Sachharum officinalis) a considerable height above the ground (Annandale 1906); R. cumingii from the trunk of a tree that had bored ant tunnels beneath the bark and multiple speci-mens from root masses of aerial ferns, including the giant tree fern (Asplenium nidus), high in forest trees (Taylor 1919, 1922); Typhlops richardii 1.5 m up on a papayo tree (Metopium toxtferum), Puerto Rico (Tolson and Campbell 1989); and T. arenarius 1.5 m up on a large tree, Madagascar (Glaw and Vences 1994). Edgar and Lilley (1993) characterized R. olivaceus from Herpetological Review 29(1), 1998 	 15 

Scolecophedian Arboreality Revisited

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Scolecophedian Arboreality Revisited

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