Acanthophis schistos Wells & Wellington, 1985

Ellis, Ryan J., Kaiser, Hinrich, Maddock, Simon T., Doughty, Paul & Wüster, Wolfgang, 2021, An evaluation of the nomina for death adders (Acanthophis Daudin, 1803) proposed by Wells & Wellington (1985), and confirmation of A. cryptamydros Maddock et al., 2015 as the valid name for the Kimberley death adder, Zootaxa 4995 (1), pp. 161-172 : 168-169

Availability of Acanthophis schistos Wells & Wellington, 1985

The name Acanthophis schistos has remained unused in the peer-reviewed scientific literature sensu Kaiser et al. (2013) since Shea (1987), Aplin (1999) and Aplin & Donnellan (1999) declared it a nomen nudum. The original description by Wells & Wellington (1985) reads as follows, reproduced here as in the original, including errors in spelling and punctuation ( Wells & Wellington 1985: 44):

“ Acanthophis schistos sp.nov.

Holotype: An adult specimen in the Western Australian Museum R 64698. Collected at Canning Dam , Western Australia.

Diagnosis: A short bodied, thickset, highly venomous snake of the genus Acanthophis , most closely related to Acanthophis antarcticus , and readily distinguished by the data given in Storr (1981:206-207, Fig. 2). Cogger (1983:423, Figs 185,763) provides an adequate diagnostic description of its nearest relative Acanthophis antarcticus .”

Storr (1981: 206), the only diagnostic work listed by Wells & Wellington (1985) for text to diagnose this taxon, began his A. antarcticus account with specimens from the South West and Eucla Divisions of Western Australia. Once again, it is clear that Storr was describing and diagnosing his concept of the single species A. antarcticus , in which he included the type locality of Sydney, New South Wales. Nothing in Storr’s paper explicitly restricts the applicability of his description to Western Australian A. antarcticus . Consequently, as in the cases listed earlier, Storr’s description cannot act as a “description or definition […] purported to differentiate the taxon.” Acanthophis schistos Wells & Wellington, 1985 is therefore not compliant with Article 13.1. of the Code, and a nomen nudum. The current valid name of these snake populations is A. antarcticus ( Fig. 1D ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. The four death adder species, genus Acanthophis, whose valid nomina we discuss herein. (A) A. cryptamydros Maddock et al., 2015 from the Mueller Ranges, ca. 110 km southwest of Halls Creek, Western Australia. (B) A. pyrrhus Boulenger, 1898 from 40 km south of Port Hedland, Western Australia. (C) A. hawkei Wells & Wellington, 1985 from the Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory, Australia. (D) A. antarcticus (Shaw & Nodder, 1802) from Canning Dam, near Ashendon, Western Australia. Photos by Ray Lloyd (A, B, D) and Tom Parkin (C).