Acontias gracilicauda Essex, 1925

Conradie, Werner, Branch, William R. & Watson, Gillian, 2019, Type specimens in the Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa, including the historically important Albany Museum collection. Part 2: Reptiles (Squamata), Zootaxa 4576 (1), pp. 1-45 : 25

Acontias gracilicauda Essex, 1925

Records of the Albany Museum, 3:334 Fig. p. 335 (right)

Holotype: PEM R5131 ( AMG un-numbered); Grahamstown, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa; E. Railey, date unknown.

Remarks. The type description provides measurements for the ‘Type’. PEM R5131 is labeled (in D.G. Broadley’s handwriting) as the holotype and fits the dimensions provided in the type description (Fig. right, p. 335). Conradie et al. (2018) in error referred to this specimen as the lectotype. The specimens from Carolina (PEM R5140) and Alicedale (PEM R5142–4) are discussed in the description and were present in the type bottle, but have no nomenclatural standing. The type is in good condition, except for part of the ventral skin removed. Essex (1925, 1927) dissected one A. gracilicauda to study the pectoral girdle, but this could not have been the holotype as there is no anterior incision in PEM R5131. An unlabeled and unaccessioned specimen in the original type bottle received from AMG has the ventral skin removed and an anterior incision to expose the pectoral region. This is probably the specimen on which Essex based his description of the pectoral region. It is without provenance and has no nomenclatural standing.