Kinixys castanea Bell, 1827 : p. 398

Nowak-Kemp, Małgosia & Fritz, Uwe, 2010, Chelonian type specimens at the Oxford University Museum, Zootaxa 2604 (1), pp. 1-19 : 15

Kinixys castanea Bell, 1827: p. 398 , plate XVII: fig. 1

Current name: Kinixys erosa (Schweigger, 1812)

Syntypes (3 specimens): OUM 8519 ( Bell Collection , Catalogue of Testudinata No. 17a; whole, stuffed specimen, SCL 29. 2 cm) ; OUM 8520 ( Bell Collection , Catalogue of Testudinata No. 17c; shell, SCL 20.4 cm) ; OUM 8521 ( Bell Collection , not listed in the Catalogue of Testudinata; shell, SCL 23.5 cm) .

Remarks: As evident from page 398 in Bell (1827), the description of his Kinixys castanea was exclusively based on specimens from his collection. The stuffed tortoise OUM 8519 agrees with the “ dimensions of a remarkably large specimen ” in Bell (1827: p. 399). We identify this tortoise with the individual initially kept alive by him, because Bell mentions that this specimen was “ after its death sent to be stuffed ”. Bell (1827: p. 393) mentions further that he “ became possessed of several [additional] shells of this species ”, which is why we conclude that OUM 8520-8521 are syntypes. Since none of these specimens is to be identified with the shell figured in Bell (1827: plate XVII: fig. 1), more than these two shells must have been present originally. In the Bell Collection is a second stuffed Kinixys erosa (OUM 1093) that is distinctly smaller than OUM 8519 (24.3 cm vs. 29.2 cm). We suppose that Bell obtained this tortoise later because he was not satisfied with the quality of the first specimen after mounting it ( Bell 1827: p. 399). Consequently, we do not regard OUM 1093 as syntype.