The Amphibians and Reptiles of Michoacán, México

This is a Amphibians and Reptiles book. For almost 30 years North American herpetologists have been making extensive collections of reptiles and amphibians in México. Some parts of the country, because of their accessibility, soon became relatively well known; other regions lying off the beaten path were bypassed or inadequately sampled. Principally in the last decade herpetologists have been entering regions from which no collections previously were available in an attempt to fill gaps in known distributions and to discover unknown species of animals. In 1950 Dr. Donald D. Brand led an exploration party from the University of Texas to the poorly explored and faunistically unknown region of southwestern Michoacán. James A. Peters accompanied Brand and collected amphibians and reptiles. In 1951 I welcomed the opportunity to accompany Brand on a second expedition to southwestern Michoacán. Such was the beginning of my interest in the herpetofauna of the region. I have been fortunate to return to Michoacán on four successive trips, all of which had as their purpose the accumulation of data on the herpetofauna that would result in a survey of the component species and an analysis of their distribution. My original intention was to amplify Peters' (1954) study based on the collections made by him in 1950 and by me in 1951 in the Sierra de Coalcomán. But it soon became evident that in order to understand the relationships of the herpetofauna of the Sierra de Coalcomán, the species inhabiting the Tepalcatepec Valley and adjacent mountain ranges would have to be studied. In the course of making that study I examined all specimens from Michoacán already in museums.