Scytale coronata, Merrem

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 : 42-43

Scytale coronata, Merrem

Plate 20 and figure 9

1824 Isis : 665 (diagnostic description of S. coronata sensu Merrem , from Pseudoboa coronata Schneider ).

1824 Abbildungen: Lief. 7.

1825 Beitra¨ge: 241.

PRESENT STATUS: Wied’s specimen 5

Pseudoboa nigra (Dume´ril et al., 1854), as

determined by J.R. Bailey in 1940. It also is a syntype (now a paralectotype) of Pseudoboa neuwiedii (Dume´ril et al., 1854), as discussed below.

REMARKS: There is only one specimen, now AMNH R-2151 ( fig. 9 ) (species no. 154 in the manuscript catalog), which was described and illustrated by Wied . Data from the Beitra¨ge include, converted length 623 + 245 mm, ventrals 200, subcaudals 95. AMNH R-2151 measures 658 + 250 mm, has 1992 ventrals (counting two small ‘‘preventrals’’) and 95 unpaired subcaudals. The specimen is very faded and the original color pattern cannot be determined (what initially appear to be traces of markings seem to be old discolored areas of abrasion or other artifacts of preservation). Wied’s plate shows a brown-headed snake with a nearly colorless, very pale grayish body, which is sparsely marked with a blackish nape bar, a broad black band (about 6 scales long) anteriorly on the body, two small irregularly shaped black blotches (one behind the broad band, the other near the end of the body), and some irregularly distributed dark gray scales, mostly on the anterior half of the body. The plate includes dorsal and ventral outlines of the head, which were compared directly with the specimen. Convincing evidence that the drawings were based on AMNH R-2151 is provided by the disposition of the two gular scales that are in asymmetrical contact with the posterior genials and flank the first small ventral (or ‘‘preventral’’); the second, larger ventral (‘‘preventral’’) is flanked on each side by a scale that is not part of the first dorsal row.

Wied misidentified this specimen as Scytale coronata Schneider , a species that does not occur in the Atlantic Forest. In 1854 Dume´ril, Bibron, and Dume´ril, in the seventh volume of the Erpe´tologie Ge´ne´rale, described Scytale neuwiedii (5 Pseudoboa neuwiedii ), explicitly referring to Wied’s plate and to the description in the Beitra¨ge; in the same account, Dume´ril et al. named a second ( Scytale neuwiedii ) variety Nigrum 25 (5 Pseudoboa nigra ) and also mentioned a third variety that was left unnamed. Boulenger (1896: 112) recognized that the original description of Scytale neuwiedii was a composite and (as first reviser) restricted the name to the species occurring north to Venezuela and Panama, but he maintained Wied’s description of ‘‘ coronata ’’ in the synonymy of neuwiedii . In first recognizing Pseudoboa nigra as a valid species, and in associating Wied’s plate with it, Bailey (1940: 76, 80) observed that

The majority of the typical material [of neuwiedii ]

represents nigra as well as most of the synonymy

and the description of the nasal bones. But

specimens of neuwiedii are included and Boulen-

ger (1896: 112–113) recognized the complex....

However, he erred in identifying the remainder

of the complex ( nigra ) with Rhinosimus (5

Phimophis ) guerini Dumeril and Bibron. The

name nigra then, with type locality Bahia, is

resurrected for the second and third varieties of

Dumeril and Bibron and for the Oxyrhopus

guerini of Boulenger.

Even though Wied’s specimen was not handled by Duméril and Bibron (1834–1854,

25 Stimpson (1974) noted that this name was a junior primary homonym of Scytale niger Daudin (5 Heterodon platirhinos ), an unused name that was suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 1981 (ICZN, 1981).

7: 1001–1002), their concept of the composite Scytale neuwiedii clearly included Wied’s description and especially the color plate of ‘‘ Scytale coronata .’’ AMNH R-2151 therefore is a syntype of Pseudoboa neuwiedii (Dume´ril, Bibron, and Dume´ril) under modern standards of nomenclature (ICZN, 1999: arts. 72.4, 73.2.1). AMNH R-2151 became a paralectotype of Pseudoboa neuwiedii owing to the action of Hoge and Lancini V. (1960), who designated another syntype as lectotype. 26

However, Wied’s specimen belongs to Duméril, Bibron, and Dume´ril’s variety nigrum , now recognized as Pseudoboa nigra . Since Dume´ril et al. did not specifically associate Wied’s plate with their variety nigrum , the specimen would not seem to reasonably qualify as an syntype explicitly of that species. Nonetheless, it and all the other original specimens of Pseudoboa nigra became paralectotypes of P. neuwiedii after the designation of a lectotype for neuwiedii . Although paralectotypes are said to have no name-bearing function (ICZN, 1999: art. 73.2.2), any of the original P. nigra specimens presumably are available for lectotype designation of that species. However, anyone needing to designate a lectotype for P. nigra (assuming that it has not been done) should give first consideration to the Paris museum specimen obtained in Bahia by Lemelle-Deville, as singled out by Dume´ril et al. (1854 [1834–1854], vol. 7: 1002) when establishing their variety nigrum .

AMNH R-2151 is represented in Maximilian’s 1860 manuscript catalog as species no. 154–’’[ Scytale ] Wiedii D.B. ( Sc. coronata Wied )’’; the locality is ‘‘ Brasilien,’’ but in the Abbildungen and Beitra¨ge he noted that it came from a sandy place between the rivers S. Matthaeus ( Rio Sa˜o Mateus) and Doc¸e ( Rio Doce) at about 19 ° south latitude.

26 These authors designated as lectotype the Paris Museum specimen cited by Duméril et al. (1854: 1002) as having been collected by ‘‘Bauperthuis’’ [Beauperthuy] at ‘‘Côte-Ferme,’’ which therefore automatically became the type locality of Pseudoboa neuwiedii . Based on historical evidence, Hoge and Lancini (1960) interpreted Beauperthuy’s ‘‘Côte-Ferme’’ as being in the vicinity of the city of Cumaná in Estado Sucre, Venezuela. This was a clarification or determination of type locality, not a subjective ‘‘type-locality restriction’’ of the sort that was commonplace in some branches of 20th century taxonomy.

Figures

Fig. 9. Prince Maximilian’s specimen of ‘‘Scytale coronata,’’ a syntype (now paralectotype) of the later described Pseudoboa neuwiedii (Dume´ril, Bibron, and Dume´ril, 1854). Pseudoboa neuwiedii was a composite species, with a simultaneously named variety Nigrum. Wied’s specimen is today considered to represent Pseudoboa nigra (Dume´ril, Bibron and Dume´ril, 1854). AMNH R-21513 (see pl. 20 for color in life).