Looking at the list of Javan snakes today one can only wonder how many species of snakes were present when Wallace wrote that statement in 1869. Relatively few people study Indonesian snakes, but more alarming is the fact that Java has a human population of more than 141 million or about 1026 humans/km². Of course there are several reasons for this. This is surprising – only five taxa of snakes described in the last half century from the 13th largest island on the planet. ![]() The most recently described snakes from Java include the pipe snake Cylindrophis subocularis (2016), two species of Dendrelaphis (2008), the pit viper Trimeresurus insularis (1977), and the minute fossorial snake Calamaria lovii wermuthi (1965). The snake fauna of Java contains 91 species in 13 families. Large tropical islands tend to have a diverse, and species-rich snake fauna. ![]() Alfred Russel Wallace described Java in his book The Malay Archipelago (1869) as".the finest and most interesting tropical island in the world".
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