Agama catenata Wied, 1821

Vanzolini, Paulo E. & Myers, Charles W., 2015, The Herpetological Collection Of Maximilian, Prince Of Wied (1782 - 1867), With Special Reference To Brazilian Materials, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2015 (395), pp. 1-155 : 37-39

Agama catenata Wied, 1821

Plate 11

1821 Reise 2: 247.

1824 Abbildungen: Lief. 15.

1824 Isis : 663 (name listed with reference to the Abbildungen).

1825 Beitra¨ge: 131.

PRESENT STATUS: Enyalius catenatus (Wied, 1821) fide Rodrigues et al., 2006, who elevated all named subspecies to full species status. Plate 11 shows a lost syntype of Enyalius catenatus (Wied) .

REMARKS: Wied gave measurements for one specimen of Agama catenata in the Reise, illustrated one specimen (see pl. 11) with different measurements in the Abbildungen, and described and measured two specimens in the Beitra¨ge (the larger corresponding to the Abbildung text, but measurements for the original Reise specimen were not repeated). The largest of his three specimens (84 + 167 5 251 mm) is smaller than the presumed holotype of Agama picta (see above).

The considerable confusion concerning the type specimen of Wied’s Agama catenata is discussed above, under Agama picta . There are no catenata specimens extant in the Maximilian collection, and no indication that any of Maximilian’s several specimens of the species ever reached the American Museum.

Jackson (1978: 20) cited the type locality as ‘‘Sertong der Capitania da Bahia’’ (the back country of Bahia), but, as earlier noted by Etheridge (1969: 244), the original description (Reise 2: 247) seemed to be based on a specimen taken at Cabec¸a do Boi, a specific place that can reasonably be considered the type locality.

Enyalius catenatus seemed to be encountered frequently enough for Wied to believe that it does not occur south of parallel 16 ° S, very roughly the southern limit shown in Jackson’s map for ‘‘ catenatus x pictus ’’ intergrades (Jackson, 1978: fig. 20 ). (Some if not all of the more southern localities mapped by Etheridge [1969: fig. 10A ] were considered by Jackson to represent E. perditus .)

Enyalius catenatus (Wied, 1821) predates three nominal species named by Spix (as Lophyrus ). The type material for these names still exists and all were confirmed as synonyms of E. catenatus by Hoogmoed and Gruber (1983: 383).

Tropidurus torquatus ( Wied, 1820) Plate 12

1820 Reise 1: 106 ( Stellio torquatus ).

1821 Reise 2: 146.

1824 Abbildungen: Lief. 6 (diagnosis, Tropidurus torquatus ).

1824 Isis : 663 (diagnosis, Tropidurus torquatus ).

1825 Beitra¨ge: 139, 605.

PRESENT STATUS: ( Tropidurus torquatus Wied, 1820 ).

REMARKS: Tropidurus torquatus is most fully discussed in the Beitra¨ge, where Wied cites two places in the first volume of the Reise: the first reference to page 36 is mistaken, and that to page 106 refers to the original 1820 description of Stellio torquatus . The reference in the second volume of the Reise is incidental.

Tropidurus is the only genus named by Wied . The type locality of the type species (by monotypy) Stellio torquaus is Paulista, as pointed out by Mu¨ ller (1927: 284). It is species no. 44 in Maximilian’s 1860 manuscript catalog, where it is listed as ‘‘ Ecphymotes torquatus (Tropidurus W.) .’’ There are no specimens in the collection and no indication that any of the syntypes ever reached the American Museum. The generic name is diagnosed in 1824 in Isis and in the Abbildungen.

The original footnote description of Stellio torquatus deals mostly with variability in color pattern. In the Abbildungen two very good figures are given on one plate, one of an adult in side view and one, especially good, of a juvenile in dorsal view. The plate (see pl. 12 herein) is labeled Stellio torquatus . Wied started this discussion by stating a notion that had preyed on him for several years, namely that his torquatus was similar or identical with Seba’s ‘‘ Stellio Quetz-Paleo ’’ (Seba, 1734 [1734–1835]: vol. 1, tab. 97, fig. 4 , between pp. 152 and 153).

The American Museum copy of the Abbildungen contains two copies of the descriptive letterpress text. One is an undated replacement sheet provided to subscribers, with an attached Zur Nachricht (‘‘notice’’) on a slip of paper identifying it as belonging to the sixth Lieferung. There are differences in both the German and French texts, but we shall comment only on the former (which always appears first and is generally given priority in matters involving the Abbildungen).

The generic diagnosis from the original 1824 letterpress sheet follows (in text immediately preceding, Wied repeated his original suspicion [from Reise 1] that this lizard probably is Seba’s Quetzpaleo).

(*) Tropidurus. Gatinugs-Keunzeichen. Kopf

mit Schildern bedeckt; am vordern Rande des

Ohres spitzige Schuppen; Kehle geschuppt,

ohne Kropf; Schwanz geringelt, die Schuppen

desselben spitzig und gekielt, bilden mehrere

fortgesetzte La¨ngskiele; Ru¨ cken und Bauch mit

Schuppen bedeckt; Schenkel ohue Porenreihe.

The generic diagnosis was reworked in the later replacement sheet, as follows:

(*) Tropidurus. Gattuungskennzeichen: Kopf geschildet; Za¨hne an jeder Seite mit einem Ausschnitte; Ohr an seinem vordern Rande mit verla¨ ngert Schuppen (Stachelschuppen) besetzt; Kehle schuppig, ohne Kehlsack; Schwanz mit ma¨ ssiggrossen, stachelig gekielten Schuppen bedeckt, welche mehrere La¨gskiele bilden; Schenkelo¨ ffnuggen fehlen; Ru¨ ckeu und Bauch schuppig.

The first species diagnosis contains only minor rewording for the replacement sheet ( En schwarzer Streif becomes Ein schwarzer Streifen ; and the tail, instead of being la¨nger als der Ko¨rper becomes la¨nger als gewo¨hnlich.) But previous references to ‘‘ Stellio ... ’’ or ‘‘ Lacerta brasiliensis Quetzpaleo. Seba ...,’’ are dropped in the replacement sheet, where Wied states that, despite the resemblance, Seba’s lizard is different, as will be shown elsewhere (i.e., see Wied, 1828 , Nova Acta series). The replacement sheet has an added reference to ‘‘Meine Beitr. zur Naturg. von Bras. B.1. pag. 139’’ — a page reference showing that the sheet must have been issued after proof was seen for the 1825 Beitra¨ge, but before 1828, when Wied’s Acta Nova paper appeared. In that paper Wied decided that Tropidurus was closest not to Seba’s lizard but to another iguanid— Uromastyx cyclurus Merrem (1829: 56) .

The last is indeed ‘‘different,’’ as Wied said it was),’’ but it too was close to Seba’s Quetzpaleo according to Merrem’s (loc. cit.) footnoted comparison with the earlier name, Cordylus brasiliensis Laurenti (1768: 52) . In naming the last, Laurenti (1768: 52) credited the Cordylus to ‘‘Var. ss. (Seba I. 97. 4.)’’ See also Wagner (1833).

Wied’s genus Tropidurus now holds 26 species of South American and Gala´pagos lizards (Uetz and Hosˇek, 2015).

Figures

Fig. 20. Shared lectotype of Elaps corallinus Wied and Micrurus corallinus (Merrem, 1820), AMNH R-

Fig. 10. Lectotype of Coluber poecilostoma Wied, in dorsal and ventral view (AMNH R-3480). Scale line 5 10 mm.

Fig. 4. Title page of volume 1 of Prince Maximilian’s Beitra¨ge zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien (Wied, 1825). This first of four volumes is the only one devoted to herpetology. Many new species are described in this fundamental work, which assembles information for all reptiles and amphibians collected by Wied.