Vipera latifii

Barabanov, Andrei V. & Doronin, Igor V., 2020, Annotated list of amphibian and reptile taxa described by Ilya Sergeevich Darevsky (1924 - 2009), Zootaxa 4803 (1), pp. 152-168 : 163-164

70. Vipera latifii MERTENS, DAREVSKY et KLEMMER (1967: 161)

Holotype: SMF 62585, “Hochtal von Lar (2180–2900 H ӧhe), südwestlich des Demavend-Gipfels im Elburs-Ge- birge, nord ӧstlich von Teheran, Iran ”.

Etymology: Named after Mahmoud Latifi (1929–2005) Iranian herpetologist, collector of the type series.

Present name: Montivipera latifii ( Mertens, Darevsky et Klemmer, 1967) fide Wallach et al. (2014).

In total, Darevsky described 70 taxa (three genera, 46 species, 21 subspecies) belonging to five orders, eight families of amphibians and reptiles. Of this number, three taxa are fossil. To date, 57 taxa are considered valid.

Descriptions were published in the following publications (the number of taxa described is indicated): Amphibia-Reptilia —2

Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien —3

Asiatic Herpetological Research —4

Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes de Moscou, Série Biologique —1

Fieldiana Zoology —6

Guide to the Amphibian and Reptilian Fauna of the USSR (book)—1

Herpetozoa —3

Journal of Herpetology —4

Journal of the Ohio Herpetological Society —1

Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India —2

Paleontologicheskyi Zhurnal —1

Proceedings of the Armenian Academy of Sciences —1

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR —2

Rock Lizards of the Caucasus (book)—4

Russian Journal of Herpetology —15

Salamandra —3

Senckenbergiana Biologica —1

Teoreticheskiye i Prikladnyje Aspekty Okhrany Prirody i Okhotovedeniya —1

Tropical Zoology —1

Zoologicheskyi Sbornik —3

Zoologicheskyi Zhurnal —9

Zoologischer Anzeiger —2

Thus, the largest number of descriptions was published in the Russian Journal of Herpetology (15) (Darevsky was one of the founders of this journal and its first editor-in-chief) and Zoologicheskyi Zhurnal (9). The largest number of descriptions (8) was made in 1999 ( Fig. 2 ), which was associated with the publication of large revision publications on amphibians and reptiles of Vietnam.

By the regions where new taxa were discovered, descriptions are distributed as follows; to simplify the ranking, geographical regions of different rank were taken (the number of described taxa is indicated): Africa—1; Eurasia, including: Central Asia—4, Southeast Asia and adjacent territory (we have included Hong Kong and Thailand)—37 and Western Asia (includes Caucasus and Asia Minor)—28.

Nikolai Orlov was the most frequent of Darevsky’s 27 co-authors of taxonomic descriptions (22 taxa).Additional frequent co-authors were: Josef Eiselt (1912–2001)—8, Robert F. Inger (1920–2019)—6, Josef F. Schmidtler (b. 1942)—4, Larissa A. Kupriyanova (b. 1945)—3, and Nguyen Van Sang (b. 1943)—3, whereas Notker Helfenberger (b. 1956), Ho Thu Cuc (b. 1950), Richard Estes (1932–1990), Nguyen Ngoc Sang (b. 1982), Karan Bahadur Shah, and Nikolay N. Szczerbak (1927–1998) each co-authored wo descriptions and Andrey G. Bannikov (1915–1985), Felix D. Danielyan (b. 1938), Tsutomu Hikida (b. 1951), Masanao Honda, Konrad Klemmer (b. 1930), Robert Mertens (1894–1975), Robert W. Murphy (b. 1948), Valentina F. Orlova (b. 1939), Hidetoshi Ota (b. 1959), Evgeny Roitberg S. (b. 1958), Anver K. Rustamov (1917–2005), Sahat M. Shammakov (b. 1933), Ivan S. Tschumakov (Chumakov) (1921–1999), Boris S. Tuniyev (b. 1956), and Valery I. Vedmederya (Vedmederja) (1946–2008) each co-authored a single descriptions with Darevsky.

Ilya S. Darevsky became the leader of herpetology in the USSR and one of the leaders in research on amphibians and reptiles of Southeast Asia. We are confident that his publications will be relevant for many years. One of the factors contributing to his successful scientific career was his wide international collaboration, as evidenced by the above information about co-authors of descriptions and journals in which they were published. This is a lesson for a new generation of herpetologists.

Figures

FIGURE 2. The chronology of taxonomic descriptions by Ilya S. Darevsky.