Lepidothyris fernandi fernandi ( Burton, 1836 )

Wagner, Philipp, Böhme, Wolfgang, Pauwels, Olivier S. G. & Schmitz, Andreas, 2009, A review of the African red – flanked skinks of the Lygosoma fernandi (BURTON, 1836) species group (Squamata: Scincidae) and the role of climate change in their speciation., Zootaxa 2050, pp. 1-30 : 7-8

Lepidothyris fernandi fernandi ( Burton, 1836)

1836 Tiliqua fernandi Burton, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1836: 62 . Type locality: Fernando Poo (today Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea).

1895 Lygosoma nov. sp. Barboza du Bocage, J. Sci. math. phys. nat. Lisboa, 3: 272.

Lepidothyris fernandi was described by Burton (1836) as Tiliqua fernandi in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London as part of the report of William Yarell, Vice–President of the Society at this time. It is mentioned there, that a drawing ‘of a Saurian Reptile of the family Scincidae and of the genus Tiliqua , Gray’ was exhibited and ‘which forms part of the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Chatham, and which is regarded by Mr. Burton, Staff–Surgeon, in charge of the museum, as hitherto undescribed’. The thereupon following description and especially the description of the colouration refers to Lepidothyris fernandi : ‘Head, back, tail and upper surface of the extremities reddish brown, a blackish line intersecting each row of scales; sides lighter, marked by a series of irregular blackish streaks; belly and under surface of tail a brownish white; throat alternated longitudinally with light and dark–brown lines; submental scales whitish, bordered with a broad dark–brown edge.’

The Army Medical Department was based at Fort Pitt. We are sure that any possibly existing iconotype (see below) is lost because of the unstable history of this Fort which eventually even led to its complete destruction: the Fort was build between 1805 and 1819 on the high ground of the boundary between Chatham and Rochester in Kent, Great Britain. Later on, it became a hospital for invalid soldiers, with an asylum added in 1849. In 1860, the first Army Medical School was founded there by the great Florence Nightingale. The Fort was closed in 1920 and converted into a girls’ school but today nothing is visible of the original Fort. Nevertheless, the Fort had a close relation to African herpetology. Sir Andrew Smith, an authority on South African herpetology, and founder of the South African Museum, was stationed in South Africa from 1821 to 1837 ( Adler 1989) and became a principal medical officer at Fort Pitt in 1837. Later he was the deputy inspector–general in 1845 and the director–general of the Army Medical Department from 1853 to 1858. Therefore it is not remarkable that a Medical Department had drawings and/or specimens of African reptiles. Smith had taken his collection of specimens and drawings with him to England to continue his work in England. Later on, his reptilian types were given to the collection of the natural history museums in Edinburgh and London ( Adler 1989). But today the holotype is neither hosted in the collection of the British Museum in London (pers. comm. C. McCarthy) nor in the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh ( Herman et al. 1990).

The Army Medical Museum and its collections have moved to Netley in 1863 to the new Royal Victoria Army Hospital. This hospital was in use until the 1970s, but there was a lot of destruction by fire and water damage and later on the whole building was destroyed (pers. comm. A. Bauer). It is to assume that Burton (1836) based his description of Tiliqua fernandi on a drawing rather than on a real holotype, making it an iconotype. Whatever the case, any possible types are very likely destroyed and therefore herein we designate a neotype of Tiliqua fernandi Burton, 1836 from the originally mentioned type locality, preserved in the collection of the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum A. Koenig in Bonn, Germany and collected by Martin Eisentraut, a former director of the museum. The adult specimen was collected at a cacao plantation near San Carlos ( Mertens 1964).

Neotype ZFMK 9362San Carlos, Fernando Poo (today Bioko Island), Equatorial Guinea, leg. M. Eisentraut, 15.X.1962 ( Fig. 2 ).

Diagnosis: Lepidothyris fernandi fernandi is a large skink, with a short but wide head and a rounded snout; eye relatively large with a round pupil; ear opening more or less oval and well visible, without lobuli; body stout and subcylindrical; four limbs, relatively short but strong, with five thin toes; tail just as stout as the body, about half of the total length and tapering smoothly, and despite its apparent stoutness easy to autotomize; body scales strongly keeled, with three keels on the dorsal scales up to five keels on the lateral scales; there are between 31 and 34 scale rows around midbody.

Colouration. Vividly red and black, above with darker shades because there every scale is framed dark; lateral side of the head, between ear opening and forelimb, shows one to three brighter blotches, separated by darker lines or bars; flanks ground coloured red to orange, with irregular black V–shaped bars and blotches and speckled with white, yellow and blue; tail ground coloured black, speckled white in adult, in juveniles and subadults speckled or bared blue; no sexual dimorphism in colouration.

Size. Angel et al. (1954) gave a maximum total size of 420.0 mm. The maximum total size given by Spawls et al. (2002) is about 380.0 mm, with an average between 250.0 and 330.0 mm. But it is likely that this is a reference to the east African population, which is recognized as a new species in this publication. The maximum snout–vent length of the analysed specimens is 161.2 mm, average is 141.1 mm. Females are smaller than males ( Dunger 1973).

Description of the Neotype: Snout–vent length: 142.2 mm; tail reduced, 130.6 mm; head length 27.3 mm; head wide 23.7 mm; head height 18.2 mm. Body stout, subcylindrical; there are 31 scales around the body and 57 scales longitudinal ventral scales; limbs short and strong with five toes, dark above, light brownbeige below; 4th fingers with eleven digits on both sides, 4th toe with 13 digits on both sides; ear opening oval, well visible, without ear lobules, its height ca. ½ of the width of the eye opening, vertically higher than broad, tympanum visible only on the right side; lower eyelid with two scale rows; dorsal body scales keeled with two to three keels; dorsal tail scales moderately triple–keeled; lateral body scales and scales on the tail smooth; head distinctly set off from body; size of eye opening ¾ the length of the distance from the posterior edge of the eye to the ear opening; distance from tip of snout to anterior edge of eye as long as the distance from posterior edge of eye to ear; occipital scale lacking; no parietal organ visible; frontal scale twice as long as broad; two frontoparietal scales at the anterior side of the frontal scale; one frontonasal scale; two internasal scales; rostral scale broader than high; two nasal scales of equal size, nostril between the nasal scales; two loreal scales, anterior higher than the posterior on the right side, posterior very small on the left side; two preocular scales; four supraocular and seven supraciliar scales; eight supralabial and eight sublabial scales on each side; mental scale broader than high; three pairs of submaxillary scales, the first one is entire.

Colouration. Head and back red to red–brown; on the back every scale is bordered dark, leaving a dorsal surface with uniform dark rows of pentagons; supralabial scales red, bordered black posteriorly; mental scale red, sublabial scales black with a white dot in each scale; colouration of the lateral sides of the body mainly dark especially between ear opening and forelimb, between the limbs black and red stripes are visible, most scales with white dots; lateral side of tail lined horizontally white and black, where the white lines are made up of black scales with white dots; belly dirty white to brownish; scales on the throat dark with a white dot, leaving the surface of the throat with uniform black and white longitudinal lines.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Neotype of Tiliqua fernandi Burton, 1836 from Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea (ZFMK 9362).