Biodiversity of Southeast-Asian frogs

                                                                                                                                                         Photo: UHH/CeNak, Haas

Since 2001, the Herpetology Department has regularly conducted expeditions to Malaysia and the island of Borneo. The herpetofauna of the Southeast Asian rainforests is still only incompletely studied. Repeated inventories, especially of national parks, are increasingly yielding complete species inventories. Special attention is also paid to the little known larval forms. Besides taxonomic work (descriptions of new frog species and tadpoles), we are also interested in the reproductive biology of the species and the habitat requirements of frogs and larvae. Besides classical taxonomic techniques of field herpetology, we use genetic methods for the identification of larvae and delimitation of species (DNA barcoding). The aim of future research is to better understand the phylogeny of Asian frogs, but also the relationships between species richness, habitat requirements of species and human-induced habitat changes.

Publications

• Haas, I., Das. A. (submitted) Describing East Malaysia tadpole diversity: Status and recommendations for standards and procedures.
Bonner Zoologische Monographien.
• Haas, A., Das, Indraneil (2009) Frogs of Borneo—The frogs of East Malaysia and their larval forms. http://www.frogsofborneo.org
• Das. I., Haas, A. (accepted): New Species of Microhyla from Sarawak: Old World’s Smallest Frogs Crawl Out of Miniature Pitcher Plants on Borneo (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae). 
Zootaxa.
• Sukumaran, J., Das, I., Haas, A. (accepted) Despcriptions of the advertisement calls of some Bornean frogs. 
Russion Journal of Herpetology.
• Haas, A, Wolter, J, Hertwig, S., Das, I. (2009): Larval morphologies of three species of stream toads, genus Ansonia (Amphibia: Bufonidae)  from East Malaysia (Borneo), with a key to known Bornean Ansonia tadpoles. 
Zootaxa 2302: 1–18.
• Direp, Y., Das, I., Haas, A. (2009) Reproductive and trophic ecology of Ansonia minuta (Amphibia: Bufonidae). 
Malayan Nature Journal 61 (4): 307–314.
• Haas, A., Das, I. (2008) Larval identities of Ansonia hanitschi Inger, 1960 (Amphibia: Bufonidae) and Polypedates colletti (Boulenger, 1890) (Amphibia: Rhacophoridae) from East Malaysia (Borneo).
Salamandra 44(2):85–100.
• Das, I., Jankowski, A., Mohd. Iqbal b. Makmor , Haas, A. (2007) Species diversity, elevational distribution and reproductive modes in an amphibian community at the Matang Range, Sarawak (Borneo). 
Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum Hamburg 104:141–174.
• Sukumaran, J., Das, I., Haas, A. (2006) A synopsis of Bornean amphibian bioacoustic studies.
Herpetological Review 37(3):288–293.
• Das, I. Haas, A. (2006) Sources of larval identities for amphibians from Borneo.
Herpetological Review 36(4):375–382.
• Das, I., Haas, A. (2005) A new species of Rhacophorus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Gunung Gading, Sarawak (Western Borneo). 
Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 53(2):257–263.