INTRODUCTION 



Since 1994 we have been collaboratively involved in biodiversity inventories in 

 Vietnam. Our investigations, conducted in association with the Institute of Ecology and 

 Biological Resources (Hanoi) and the Zoological Institute of St. Petersburg (Russia), have 

 led us to understand that the amphibian fauna of Vietnam is poorly known. The most 

 current, comprehensive review of the amphibians of this region was done by Bourret 

 (1942). Bourret estimated that 82 species of amphibians occurred m Vietnam. However, 

 our recent efforts suggest that this figure grossly underestimates Vietnam's amphibian 

 diversity. 



As we work to identify our herpetological collections fi"om Vietnam, it is 

 imperative that we have access to the literature that includes the herpetofauna fi-om 

 regions adjacent to Vietnam. In addition to Bourret (1942), the reviews of Inger (1954, 

 1966) on the Philippine Islands and Borneo, respectively, and Taylor's (1958, 1962) 

 reviews of Thailand herpetofauna have been indispensable. However, a great deal of 

 Vietnam's herpetofauna is shared with China. The works of Pope (1931) and Liu (1950) 

 have supplied us with the older descriptions of many Chinese amphibians. Since the mid 

 1980's much significant work has originated from within China. Several new species have 

 been described and numerous taxonomic accounts and revisions have been given in 

 Chinese. Recently, we began to translate these descriptions, particularly those pertaining 

 to megophryid fi-ogs. The papers are likely to be useful to other biologists, and we 

 present two of these translations herein: 



YoNG-ZHAO Huang and Liang Fei. 1981. Two new species of 

 amphibians m Tibet. Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica 6(2): 211-215. 



Liang Fei, Chang- YUAN Ye AND Yong-zhao Huang. 1992. Description 

 of two new species of the genus Megophrys, Pelobatidae (Amphibia: 

 Anura) from China. Zoological Research 13(1):5-12. 



