John Romer discovered three new species of amphibian in Hong Kong, and all three still stand as ‘good’ species.
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| Amolops hongkongensis From Flickr. Photo by Thomas Brown in 2011 |
Taking them in order of date of collection the first was described as Staurois hongkongensis. Now known as Amolops hongkongensis, the Hong Kong Cascade Frog or Hong Kong Torrent Frog, lives along mountain streams and lays its eggs on rocks being splashed by the cascading water. Romer found the first specimens in August 1950 on the mountain, Tai Mo Shan. It is known to occur over much of Hong Kong and there are also reports from nearby regions. In Hong Kong it is relatively common but it is classified by IUCN as ‘Endangered’. Given his contacts in London I always found it rather odd that the description of the new species was with Clifford Hillhouse Pope (1899-1974) of the Chicago Natural History Museum as senior author. Pope was well established as an expert on the herpetofauna of China with his book on amphibians, a companion to his The Reptiles of China still unpublished. Pope was also beginning well known for his semi-popular books. His 1955 book The Reptile World appeared in British school and public libraries. The paper by Pope and Romer, 1951, appeared in Fieldiana Zoology, a house journal of the museum.
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| Boulenophrys brachykolos From Flickr. Photo by Thomas Brown in 2011 |
A small frog found on The Peak, Hong Kong Island in August 1952, was next to be described as a new species. Again the specimen was sent to Chicago. Although the frog was found in 1952, the paper did not appear until 1961. The senior author this time was another well-known herpetologist Robert Frederick Inger (1920-2019) who had succeeded Pope in Chicago. Inger wrote the popular Living Reptiles of the World in 1957 with his and Pope’s former boss, Karl Patterson Schmidt (18890-1957). Megophrys (now Boulenophrys) brachykolos or Short-legged Toad also occurs over the border in Guangdong. It is classified as ‘Endangered’.
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| Romerus romerus From Flickr. Photo by Thomas Brown in 2011 |
The third species, the eponymous Romer’s Frog, was also discovered in August 1952—in a cave beside the sea on the island of Lamma. But instead of Chicago he sent specimens to the Natural History Museum in London where in 1953 they were described and named for Romer, Philautus romeri by Malcolm Arthur Smith (1875-1958) who worked in a voluntary capacity at the Museum.
Romer would have known Smith personally because he was a driving force behind the formation of the British Herpetological Society and would have become its first Secretary had he not got a job as pest control officer in the Hong Kong government. Smith was slated as first President. I have written before on Smith who was keen on amphibians and reptiles as a child but knew the only way he could pursue that activity was by earning a living as a doctor. After qualifying at Charing Cross Hospital and practice in London he went off to Bangkok as medical officer to the British Legation. That job was then extended to physician to the royal household of Siam (now Thailand). During his time there he was active in natural history, collecting specimens and writing accounts of the herpetofauna of south-east Asia. In 1925 at the age of 50 he retired to London where he was given space at the Natural History Museum. From there until his death he published extensively particularly on the reptiles of Asia.
Romer’s Frog has carried a succession of generic names. The most recent move has been to put it along with several others species from China into a new genus, Romerus. Thus we have John commemorated by both genus and species, Romerus romerus. I also much prefer the simple common name to others that have come into use like Romer's Treefrog and Romer's Bubble-nest Frog. Romerus romerus is also classified by IUCN as ‘Endangered’.
I do not know why he chose to send specimens where he did. Did he take advice from Smith, for example, on where the most expertise lay? He certainly sent a snake to a leading expert in that particular group of snakes when he found or received the first specimen in 1966 on the side of Tai Mo Shan. The expert was Edmiund Virgil Malnate (1916-2003) an interesting character who by profession was a graphic artist but combined that work with being a volunteer curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The paper by Malnate and Romer on the occurrence of the Mountain Keelback, Amphiesma (now Hebius) atemporalis, in Hong Kong was published in 1969. Until he collaborated with Jean-Paul Risch in debunking the newt that never was, his only co-authors were Pope, Inger and Malnate.
The People
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| John Romer in Stuttgart, 1977 |
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| Clifford H Pope Robert F Inger |
Anon. 2014. Pope, Clifford H (1899-1974). In Contributions to the History of Herpetology (Volume 1, revised and expanded), Edited by Kraig Adler, p 94. Society for the Study of Reptiles and Amphibians.
Anon. 2007. Romer, J.D. (1920-1982). In Contributions to the History of Herpetology (Volume 2), Edited by Kraig Adler, p 212. Society for the Study of Reptiles and Amphibians.
Inger RF, Romer JD. 1961. A new pelobatid frog of the genus Megophrys from Hong Kong. Fieldiana—Zoology 39, 533-538
Malnate EV, Romer JD. 1969. A snake new to the fauna of Hong Kong and China: Amphiesma atemporalis (Bourret). Notulae naturae of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia No 424, 1–8.
Pope CH, Romer, JD. 1951 A new ranid frog (Staurois) from the Colony of Hongkong. Fieldiana—Zoology 31, 609-6l2.
Smith M. 1953. Description of a new species of frog of the genus Philautus, Annals and Magazine of Natural History 6, 477-478.
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