Few regions in Middle America are so important zoogeographically as is
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, that neck of land connecting North America
with Central America, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of
Mexico by a distance of only about 220 kilometers (airline), and
forming a low break between the highlands of Mexico and those of
Central America. Before World War II the isthmus could be reached
readily only by railroad or by ocean vessel to Salina Cruz or
Coatzacoalcos. With the advent of roads, principally the Trans-isthmian
Highway, vast areas of the interior of the isthmus became accessible to
biologists. Nevertheless, long before roads were built in the isthmian
region collectors and biologists visited it, especially the town of
Tehuantepec, from which collections date back to the 1870's. Therefore,
it is rather surprising that no attempt has been made to present a
faunal list of the amphibians or reptiles of the isthmus. Ruthven
(1912) summarized his collections from the vicinity of Cuatotolapam,
Veracruz, and Hartweg and Oliver (1940) presented an annotated list of
the species collected by them in the vicinity of Tehuantepec. In recent
years there have been only a few papers reporting species from the
isthmus (Fugler and Webb, 1957; Langebartel and Smith, 1959). The
zoogeographic significance of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is exemplified
by the works of Burt (1931), Duellman (1958), Gloyd (1940), Oliver
(1948), and Stuart (1941), who in their discussions of evolution and
dispersal of various genera of reptiles, pointed out that the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec was a region of zoogeographic importance.
Originally I intended to study the entire herpetofauna of the isthmus.
But I have not had opportunity to study all of the reptiles, and I have
not had the inclination to solve certain taxonomic problems concerning
them. The amphibians that I collected, together with all other known
specimens in museums, have been studied. Therefore, the present report
is concerned only with the amphibians. Only the amphibians of the
lowlands of the isthmus have been sampled adequately. Although I have
commented on the highland species in the discussion of distribution,
they are not included in the systematic section, which deals solely
with the 36 species definitely known to occur in the lowlands of the
isthmus.
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