Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
A great diversity of lizards live in the region, with more than 150 species
recorded. Agamid lizards, monitors, geckos, and skinks are present in both subre-
gions of the rainforest. Agamid lizards are common throughout the region. They
are the Old World equivalent to iguanas and live in trees, on the ground, and along
waterways. The largest lizards of the forest are the varanids or monitor lizards. The
varanids are an ancient group of lizards found in Africa and throughout southern
Asia, the Indonesian islands, and Australasia. These lizards are strong, diurnal liz-
ards ranging in length and weight from the short-tailed monitor at about 8 in (200
mm) and 0.7 oz (20 g), to the Komodo dragon at 10 ft (3 m) and 120 lb (54 kg). The
Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. It is restricted to the islands of
Komodo, Flores, and the smaller islands in the eastern part of the Indonesian ar-
chipelago. Smaller monitors are found throughout the entire region. Skinks are the
most diverse group of lizards, with the greatest numbers occurring in the Asian-
Pacific region. They are slender, fast carnivorous lizards that eat invertebrates and
small rodents. Tree skinks, sun skinks, brown skinks, and slender skinks live in the
dry forests of the Asian Pacific. Geckos are small insectivorous lizards found in
warm climates throughout the world. Golden geckos, house geckos, Indo-Pacific
geckos, tree geckos, and Tokay geckos all inhabit this region.
Toads, frogs, and caecilians are the amphibians of the Asian-Pacific seasonal
forest. Many live in or near water, while others spend their lives in the trees or for-
est floor. True toads—including the Sulawesi toad, Asiatic toad, forest toad, and
four ridge toad—and true frogs—such as field and creek frogs, puddle frogs, cricket
frogs, rock frogs, the Malaysia frog, and rhinoceros frog—are found throughout
the region. Litter frogs and horned frogs live on the forest floor among the decom-
posing leaves, and bullfrogs, chorus frogs, black-spotted frogs, stick frogs, and nar-
row-mouthed frogs emerge from burrows after it rains. The yellow-striped
caecilian is a legless amphibian, worm-like in appearance that lives underground in
the seasonal forest.
Insects and Other Invertebrates
Like other regions, the seasonal forests in the Asian-Pacific region host a multitude
of insects and other invertebrates that play important roles in the forest. Insects are
the largest class of invertebrates in the forest. Butterflies, moths, ants, wasps, bees,
termites, beetles, and stick and leaf insects are incredibly varied and have devel-
oped unique adaptations to survive and prosper.
Butterflies are abundant during certain times of the year. Many of the butterflies
in this region are in the five main butterfly families: birdwings and swallowtails,
milkweed butterflies, gossamer-winged butterflies, satyrs, wood and tree nymphs,
and saturns. The birdwings and swallowtails are some of the largest and most spec-
tacular butterflies in the world.
Moths are more numerous than butterflies, but are less well studied. Most
moths are active at night; however, swallowtail moths are active during the day.
Hawk moths, sphinx moths, and hornworms are common in the seasonal forests.
