Herpetofauna of the Hawaiian Islands 1 
Don Hunsaker II 2 and Paul Breese 3 
This study was undertaken to determine the 
changes that have occurred in the herpetofauna 
of the Hawaiian Islands since the work in the 
early forties by Oliver and Shaw (1953). The 
work is a result of a field survey of most of the 
islands conducted by the authors during the 
summer of 1962. Since the purpose of the sur- 
vey was to observe gecko vocalization, more 
data are available on this group than on the 
others. The islands afford a unique opportunity 
to observe a dynamic fauna since there are con- 
stant introductions from foreign sources. Peri- 
odical surveys have been made which furnish 
an investigator a well annotated history. 
Changes have been observed during each of the 
major surveys, made by Stejneger (1899), Sny- 
der (1917), and Oliver and Shaw (1953). 
In an accurate analysis of the faunal charac- 
teristics of the islands during 1943 when their 
study was conducted, Oliver and Shaw (1953), 
listed 8 species of amphibians and 15 species of 
reptiles. Since that time the house gecko, Hemi- 
dactylus jrenatus , has been introduced. Two 
iguanid lizards, the Cuban anole, Anolis por- 
catus, and the horned lizard, Phrynosoma cor- 
nutum, have become established and are now 
considered to be permanent residents of the 
islands. Anolis was established by 1951 (Shaw 
and Breese, 1951) and Phrynosoma since that 
time. Hawaii’s laws prohibit introduction of any 
snakes, but occasional specimens have been col- 
lected. Gopher snakes, Pituophis catenifer, and 
garter snakes, Thamnophis elegans, have been 
collected on Oahu, but are not considered to be 
established. These probably represent pets that 
have escaped and at the present time do not 
constitute a significant part of the fauna. 
1 This research was supported in part by the Na- 
tional Institutes of Health, Grant No. M-4996. Man- 
uscript received April 18, 1966. 
2 San Diego State College, San Diego, California. 
3 Formerly Director of Kapiolani Park Zoo, Hono- 
lulu, Hawaii. 
REPTILIA 
SERPENTES (SNAKES) 
Blind Snake (Typhlops braminus) 
About 1930 this species was accidentally in- 
troduced on the island of Oahu with a shipment 
of palm trees from the Philippines which were 
planted around the new Kamehameha Schools 
in Kapalama, Honolulu. It became established 
quickly in the vicinity of the schools, and dur- 
ing the following decade spread into the resi- 
dential areas of Honolulu. By 1947, it had been 
collected in an area several miles from the 
original locality (Fisher, 1948), and it now 
appears to occupy the lowland area over the 
entire island. It is unknown on the higher 
mountains, but this may be due to inadequate 
collecting efforts. The large amounts of top soil 
that are transported from one part of the island 
to another probably are responsible for the 
spread of this fossorial animal. Recently, Typh- 
lops braminus has been collected in Kahului, 
the major port city of the island of Maui. While 
there are some restrictions on the transportation 
of soil around vegetation or domestic plants 
between the islands, certain people manage to 
evade them. Such shifting of top soil, potted 
plants, etc., as well as large-scale freight ship- 
ping by sea, probably is responsible for the in- 
troduction of the blind snake on Maui. Its 
establishment on the other islands is to be ex- 
pected. 
SAURIA (LIZARDS) 
GEKKONIDAE 
Mourning Gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris) 
The first Hawaiians probably introduced this 
species during early population invasions ap- 
proximately 1,000 years ago. The eggs are 
highly adhesive and can be seen clinging to 
mats and other household articles such as early 
immigrants probably brought with them. They 
have been recorded in the Panama Canal Zone 
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