Fourteen species of reptiles (two turtles, five geckos, six skinks, one monitor lizard) are recorded in the first herpetological survey of Sorol Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Most of the species are widespread in the western Pacific and often well beyond. Emoia boettgeri is endemic to the Caroline and Marshall Islands and is at the western limits of its range on Sorol Atoll, and E. atrocostata, which is widely distributed in Indo-Australia and the western Pacific, is near the eastern edge of its range in the Caroline Islands on Sorol. Emoia caeruleocauda and E. impar are the most common lizards on the islands where they were recorded, and Lepidodactylus moestus was the most widely encountered, being recorded on four of the six islands. An abundance of turtle tracks on the beaches of nearly all the islands suggests that Sorol Atoll is an important sea turtle nesting site in the FSM. The monitor lizard, Varanus indicus, frequently feeds on turtle eggs on Sorol Island, where it was introduced during the Japanese administration, but it has not spread to the other islands on the atoll.
Reptiles of Sorol Atoll, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia
