INTRODUCTION 



The Venezuelan herpetofauna is fairly large compared to any 

 other belonging to a tropical country of similar area. The 

 diversity is due to both a complex physiography and an active 

 speciation process. 



The present checklist includes, to the best of my knowledge, 

 all species recorded for Venezuela and described through December 

 1990. Of the 490 recorded taxa, 15% have been described in the last 

 two decades. The process of description could be stronger if a 

 checklist were available; however, there is no such list. Because 

 many additional species are known but not described and many 

 additional ones awaiting discovery, I offer this checklist as a 

 base line reference tool, realizing that it will require 

 continuing modifications to keep it current with new research 

 discoveries and systematic rearrangements. 



In spite of their usefulness, only two other similar checklists 

 are available for South American (Ecuador - Miyata, 1982, SHIS 54: 

 1-70; Chile - Veloso & Navarro, 1988, Bol . Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. 

 Torino 6 (2) :481-539) . 



The accompanying bibliography covers the period 1960-1985, 

 attempting to include the fully diversity of topics dealing with 

 the Venezuelan herpetofauna. Undoubtedly, some references have 

 been involuntarily omitted, for which I apologize. References 

 prior to 1960 are covered by Duellman (1979), Duellman & Trueb 

 (1985), Hoogmoed (1973), Medem (1981, 1983), Pritchard & Trebbau 

 (1984), Rivero (1961), Roze (1966), and Vanzolini (1977, 1978) 

 books. We recommend readers to these latter references for the 

 older literature. The 1985 limit was selected because after that 

 year the economical situation in Venezuela forced our libraries to 

 discontinue many subscription and cease or delay the 

 publication of in-country periodicals. Thus since then, 

 bibliographic searches are a haphazard affair. 



I hope that this list and bibliography will help the young 

 generations of Venezuelan (and others) herpetologists to more 

 expeditiously begin their studies of this interesting vertebrate 

 fauna. 



