BIOGEOGRAPHY OF INDONESIAN SNAKES

The islands of eastern Indonesia occupy the major zone of contact and overlap between the reptile faunas of the Asian and Australo-Papuan re gions. A survey of reptiles on twenty-eight islands in eastern Indones ia between 1988 and 1993 has documented several major range extensions and many new records of species on islands. The zoogeographic affinit ies of the snakes of Indonesian islands are re-examined in the light o f both recent surveys and taxonomic research and coupled with that pub lished previously. The major boundary in the snake fauna of Indonesia occurs between Sulawesi and the Lesser Sunda islands to the west and t he northern and southern Maluku group of islands to the east; it corre sponds to the major biogeographic boundary known as Weber's Line. The biogeographic affinities of the snakes of the Tanimbar islands are equ ivocal. The snake fauna of islands within the Lesser Sunda group indic ate that separation between islands during the Pleistocene played a ro le in determining current assemblages and variation within species The islands of eastern Indonesia form biogeographic subregions that have relatively high levels of endemism and evidence of incipient speciatio n as a consequence of changes in sea-levels and climate during the Ple istocene.