Evolutionary Studies of Small Animals in Asian Tropics

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In this project we planed field researches in tropical Asia, Malaysia and Thailand. In 1992, we made surveys in the western regions of the Malay Peninsula : Kaki Bukit, Gunung Jerai, Penang Island, Larut Hill, Cameron Highlands, Fraser's Hill, and Genting Highland. In the next summer, 1993, we surveyed national parks and wildlife sanctuaries of Sarawak, Malaysia : Lambir Hill, Gunung Mulu, Lanjak-Engtimau, Gunung Gading, and Sumunsam. In these surveys, we made collections of insects, amphibians and reptiles, recorded voices of frogs and geckos, and collected temperature data for lizards. We also studied natural histories of lucanid and passalid beetle larvae. Frozen tissues of amphibians and reptiles were kept and brought back to Japan for future genetic analyses. The karyological studies were also processed and analyzed. The alive insect larvae of lucanid and passalid beetles were brought back to Japan and reared in the laboratory for natural history studies.Frog Voices data have been analyzed and compared with those from other regions, such as China and Japan. The study of the ranid genus Amolops were published. The some undescribed gecko species of the genus Hemiphyllodactylus were discovered in the mountain regions in the Malay Peninsula. These findings will be published after the comparisons with allied species loaned from the museum. Several species of the lucanid and passalid beetles were newly described from Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. The collected specimens were deposited in the Kyoto University and parts of them were returned to our counterpart in each country.As to the researches in Thailand, we made only preliminary survey in Kanchanaburi in September in 1993, since the research permission from National Research Council was received in the middle August. We visited Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, and examined the deposited specimens.