Sri Lanka: An Amphibian Hot Spot

Sri Lanka: an amphibian hot spot.

Dramatic population declines have affected frogs worldwide (1), and, although new species continue to be described (2), the discovery of large new species radiations is rare. Here, we report the discovery of an endemic radiation of 100 species of Old World tree frogs (Rhacophorinae) from Sri Lanka, an island from which only 18 rhacophorine species were known previously (3). An extensive survey,...

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a country with an approximate area of 66 thousand square kilometers (UNO, 2008). The population is 20,409,946 and the sex ratio (men per hundred women) is 98 (UNO, 2009). The proportion of the population under the age of 18 years is 28% and the proportion above age 60 is 8% (UNO, 2009). The literacy rate is 97% for men and 99% for women (UN Statistics, 2008). The life expectancy at...

An integrated low vision service: Sri Lanka

The Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) has been involved in a five-year pilot project to improve low vision services for children in Tanzania.Low vision services were limited to a few tertiary hospitals and were accessible to only a few children. Children with low vision were usually enrolled in schools for the blind, most of them without having received an eye examination or...

Parasitic zoonoses in Sri Lanka: an update.

Cestodes Since 1993 (1) several cases of sparganosis caused probably by Spirometra sp. have been observed. (5,6 and Samarasinghe S, personal communication). Bertiella studeri, an anoplocephalid tapeworm, is now recognised as a parasite acquired in areas where monkey reservoir hosts abound (7). As summarised by the present author (8) this cestode (Weerasooriya MV, Edirisinghe JS, personal commun...

Women in Sri Lanka