Coluber pileatus Wied, 1824

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 : 55-57

Coluber pileatus Wied, 1824

Plate 34, figure 17 (not a type)

1824 Isis : 668 (diagnosis).

1824 Abbildungen: Lief. 8.

1825 Beitra¨ge: 344, 600.

PRESENT STATUS: Philodryas olfersii olfersii ( Lichtenstein, 1823) .

REMARKS: This species was diagnosed in the Isis and well depicted in the Abbildungen in 1824, and later well described in the Beitra¨ge, including measurements and scale counts for three specimens (one of Wied’s and two in Leiden). There is no doubt as to the specific assignment, and Wied himself noted in the Beitra¨ge appendix (p. 600) that his pileatus ‘‘scheint identisch mit Coluber Olfersii Hempr. oder Col. olivaceus Olf. zu seyn.’’ And his 1860 manuscript catalog shows it as ‘‘ Dryophis Wagl. olfersii Licht. (Colub. pileatus Wied ),’’ species no. 158.

There is only one specimen in the collection, AMNH R-2801 ♀, to be compared with Wied’s specimen (no. 1 below) and the two specimens from Leiden (2–3). The relevant data are:

Although AMNH R-2801 ( fig. 17 ) is superficially similar to Wied’s illustration (pl. 34), the disagreement in measurements is forbidding. Furthermore, there are substantial differences between the specimen and the ventral outline of the head shown in plate 34: the plate shows on both left and right sides infralabials 1–5 in contact with the anterior genials and labials 5–6 in contact with the posterior genials (1–4 and 4–5, respectively, in AMNH R-2801), nor is there any correspondence in the arrangement of the variously sized gular scales lying between the posterior genials and the anterior ventral plate.

AMNH R-2801 cannot be matched with Wied’s publications and we do not regard it as a type specimen. Whether it was collected by Wied or acquired by him later is not known.

The type locality is the ‘‘ Rio Itabapuana’’ as given in the Beitra¨ge (p. 348) and in Peters and Orjejas-Miranda (1970: 244).

Figures

Fig. 17. Coluber pileatus Wied. This is the only surviving specimen of the species in the Maximilian collection, but it is not a type (AMNH R-2801♀). Scale line 5 10 mm.