Coluber rabdocephalus 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 : 57

Coluber rabdocephalus Wied, 1824 Plates 35–36 and figure 18 (lectotype)

1824 Isis : 668 (diagnosis).

1825 Beitra¨ge: 351.

1827 Abbildungen: Lief. 10 (2 pls.).

PRESENT STATUS: Xenodon rabdocephalus (Wied, 1824) .

REMARKS: This species was diagnosed in the Isis for 1824, carefully described in the Beiträge, and figured with two plates in the Abbildungen.

Myers (in Myers and McDowell, 2014: 83–89) analyzed the confused cataloging history of specimens assigned to Coluber or Xenodon ‘‘ rhabdocephalus ’’ (an old emendation) in the American Museum and designated the only surviving syntype (AMNH R- 3609) as lectotype. Although the old AMNH catalog locality for this specimen was ‘‘ Surinam,’’ it clearly is an illustrated Wied specimen from Brazil. A copy of the Abbildungen painting (without color) and the preserved specimen are compared side by side in figure 18 ; as earlier noted by Myers (in Myers and McDowell, 2014: 89),

allowing for minor copying errors, the match is

excellent. The body is too soft to obtain accurate

scale counts without further damage to the

specimen, but it has an undivided anal plate

(with a short tear that should not be mistaken for

a division) and 47 pairs of subcaudals; it is in two

parts, measuring about 290 mm + 295 mm 5

approximately 585 mm total length, of which

about 86 mm (14.7%) is tail length.

Figures

Fig. 18. Lectotype of Xenodon rabdocephalus (Wied, 1824). One of two unnumbered folio plates (left) showing ‘‘Coluber rabdocephalus’’ in the Abbildungen zur Naturgeschichte (Wied, 1827 [1822–1831] = plate 35 herein. Same specimen (right), now AMNH R-3609. This specimen suffered some decomposition in the past, with the body becoming very soft and breaking completely in two parts (arrows show place of break). Telling points of resemblance between painting and specimen are numbered: 1. Longitudinal white line on neck, terminating Y-shaped at first dorsal blotch; 2–6. Anterior and posterior pale edges of dorsal blotches, showing both resemblances and minor copying errors; asterisk (*) denotes the undivided anal plate. The resemblance between the painting and specimen is very close, allowing for the inevitable accumulated copying errors (i.e., Wied’s original penand-ink watercolor was copied from life and it in turn was copied by an artist for the published plate).