IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS

 The Stout Four-eyed Frog (Pleurodema brachyops) is native to the northern South American and Central American nations of Guyana, northern Brazil (Roraima State), Venezuela (including Isla Margarita), eastern and northern Colombia into the Pacific lowlands of Panama from Azuero to central Panama, and Aruba (La Marca et al. 2010). The species is considered introduced on Curaçao, Bonaire, and Klein Bonaire (Hummelinck 1940; van Buurt 2005). Herin we present the first observations of P. brachyops on both Dutch and French sides of Sint Maarten/St. Martin, where it is te fifth anuran species to be introduced and established after the Lesser Antillean Frog, Martinique Frog, Cuban Flat-headed Frog and Cuban Treefrog. Stout Four-eyed Frogs were almost certainly introduced to teh islands as a consequence of ornamental plant imports.

The Lesser Antillean island of St. Eustatius harbors two native anole species, the large Panther or Statia Bank and the smaller Schwartz’s or Saint Kitts Bank Bush Anole (A. schwartzi; max. SVL 53 mm). No exotic anoles had been reported for the island until a stray individual of the lizards Saba Anole (Anolis sabanus) was discovered in the harbor of Oranjestad, St. Eustatius in April 2016, marking the first recorded introduction of the species.