ACROCHORDIDAE

Krysko, Kenneth L., Burgess, Joseph P., Rochford, Michael R., Gillette, Christopher R., Cueva, Daniel, Enge, Kevin M., Somma, Louis A., Stabile, Jennifer L., Smith, Dustin C., Wasilewski, Joseph A., Kieckhefer Iii, Guy N., Granatosky, Michael C. & Nielsen, Stuart V., 2011, 3028, Zootaxa 3028, pp. 1-64 : 46

ACROCHORDIDAE

The Javan File Snake, Acrochordus javanicus Hornstedt 1787 , is indigenous to coastal areas from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and through Malaysia and the Greater Sunda Islands of Indonesia ( Lillywhite & Ellis 1994; McDiarmid et al. 1999), although Trutnau (1986) claimed it occurs as far west as India. Loope et al. (2001:292) first mentioned A. javanicus in southern Florida (citing Paul E. Moler [FWC] personal communication), and this locality was erroneously referred to as University Lakes Trailer Park, Miami, Miami-Dade County, by Bartlett and Bartlett (2003) and Meshaka et al. (2004) based on intentional misinformation to these authors regarding the actual introduction site (JAW personal observation). In the early 1970s, an exotic animal importer, Bill Chase, released several adult A. javanicus into a former rock-mining pit in the center of Jones Trailer Park, on State Road 997, 1.2 km southwest of U.S. 27, Miami-Dade County (25.94137 o N, - 80.43777 o W). Since then, on numerous occasions JAW has observed or captured A. javanicus in the rock pit both during the day and at night. In June or July of 1979 or 1980, JAW and Tamir Ellis captured five A. javanicus by hand in the rock pit: one ca. 120 mm TL, two ca. 900 mm TL, and two ca. 300 mm TL. One of these A. javanicus was maintained in a laboratory at the University of Florida and later given to FWC as a voucher, but this specimen had gone missing (Tamir Ellis personal communication). Circa 1990, at least two adult A. javanicus were caught on fishing gear using live fish as bait; one of these A. javanicus was caught by Bill Vath (personal communication) and subsequently observed by many people, including JAW and two FWC wildlife officers (David Roudebush personal communication), but the photograph could not be located. In 1998, an adult (ca. 2100 mm TL) A. javanicus was observed floating dead in the rock pit. Since then, at least two other A. javanicus have been observed alive, one in 2002 and one 2010, but no vouchers for this population have been deposited in a collection. During cold weather in December 2002, an unidentified person claimed to have collected five juvenile A. javanicus that were cold-stunned and floating in shallow water in the Tamiami Canal just west of Krome Avenue, Miami-Dade County (estimated at 25.76121 o N, - 80.49684 o W) (R.D. Bartlett personal communication); however, this introduction is not credible and could not be verified. Nonetheless, three of these purported A. javanicus died within a couple of weeks; two of these were deposited as vouchers: UF 151593 (31.5 cm SVL; 38.4 cm TL) and UF 151594 (58.5 cm SVL; 71.2 cm TL). On 6 June 2011 at 2200 h, DC collected a juvenile (ca. 320 mm SVL) A. javanicus (photographic voucher UF 164361; MorphoBank M88677; Fig. 70) laying on a metal rod ca. 150 mm above the same puddle of water (see Hypselotriton orientalis account above) just outside the property of the animal importer's facility at 6450 Stirling Road, Hollywood, Broward County (26.04591 o N, - 80.21976 o W). Although this date is outside of the cutoff (2010) of this paper, we believe it is crucial and included herein because this is the first verifiable voucher specimen known from Florida. Additionally, in ca. May 2011, a neighborhood resident collected three other juvenile A. javanicus in this same puddle of water (DC personal observation). This species has now been found multiple times for nearly 40 years at Jones Trailer Park, and the presence of adults and juveniles suggests reproduction and establishment (stage 3) of this species there. This represents the first known voucher for this species in Florida.