Herbertophis plumbeus Macleay, 1884 :434

Kaiser, Christine M., Kaiser, Hinrich & O’Shea, Mark, 2018, The taxonomic history of Indo-Papuan groundsnakes, genus Stegonotus Duméril et al., 1854 (Colubridae), with some taxonomic revisions and the designation of a neotype for S. parvus (Meyer, 1874), Zootaxa 4512 (1), pp. 1-73 : 37

Herbertophis plumbeus Macleay, 1884:434

Taxonomic status. Junior synonym of S. australis . Type species of the genus Herbertophis Macleay, 1884:434 .

Synonyms. None.

Original name. Herbertophis plumbeus Macleay, 1884:434 . The genus name translates as “Herbert snake,” in reference to the Herbert River, Queensland, Australia. The species name comes from the Latin, with plumbeus meaning lead-like, presumably to denote the snake’s “nitid 17 leaden-black colour above” ( Macleay 1884:434). The species description was presented in English.

Holotype. AMS R31895 ( Fig. 21 ; Table 1), an adult male.

Type locality. “Ripple Creek, Herbert River” [Ripple Creek Plantation along the Herbert River, near Ingham, Queensland, Australia, ca. 18.58°S, 146.21°E]. Ripple Creek is a small tributary to the Herbert River, but it is unlikely that collection activity was specific to the creek only. Instead, the specimen could have been collected anywhere on the lands of the Ripple Creek Plantation ( Connor 2017). The sugar cane plantation, now defunct, extended from the northern bank of the Herbert River, in the area where Ripple Creek enters the river, to the Seymour River (ca. 3 km to the north).

Collection. At the beginning of his account, Macleay (1884) recounted that a few days before the writing of this paper commenced, “Mr. Archibald Boyd of Ripple Creek, Herbert River” brought him “an earthenware jar” with a series of unidentified vertebrates. We believe that the jar’s contents came from the collecting activities of the then-plantation overseer, John Archibald Boyd (1846–1926; Fig. 17D ), who had become an expert collector of natural history specimens during nearly two decades spent in Fiji ( Henry 2014; Greer et al. 2016). The photograph of Boyd ( Fig. 17D ; public domain) was taken in 1888 by the Australian photographer Algernon Hall (1828–1905), who made his name photographing towns and portraits in Victoria and Queensland.

Key characteristics of the holotype. [984] (1025) mm SVL + “9¼ inches” [235] (250) mm TL = “ 4 feet ” [1219] (1275) mm TTL. V ♂ = 219 (220), SC ♂ = 74 (74), SCR ♂ = 0.25 (0.25), D = O-17-O (17-17-15), SL E = 3+4+5 (3+4+5), SL = 9 (9), IL = 10 (10), IL G = O (5). The dorsal count of 17 was provided in the generic description, as a diagnostic feature of Herbertophis .

Key characteristics of the species. See the account of S. australis above.

Comment. Macleay (1884) placed his new genus Herbertophis into “Gray’s family or group, Coronellidae” (now part of Colubridae ).

17. The term “nitid” comes from the Latin and means shiny or glistening. We assume that this term is used here to indicate that the snake’s color is not a matte black but a shiny black. It could also be used to imply the presence of iridescent sheen.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Selected 19 th and 20 th Century authors and collectors of Stegonotus species. (A) Giacomo Doria (1840–1913), author of the species names aruensis and keyensis. (B) Odoardo Beccari (1843–1920), collector of the Stegonotus aruensis and S. keyensis type specimens. (C) William Macleay (1820–1891), author of the genus name Herbertophis and the species names darnleyensis and plumbeus. (D) John Archibald Boyd (1846–1926), collector of the Herbertophis plumbeus holotype. (E) George Albert Boulenger (1858–1937), author of the species names guentheri, heterurus, and reticulatus. Image licensed for use, © National Portrait Galley, London, United Kingdom. (F) The Reverend George Brown (1835–1917), collector of the Stegonotus heterurus syntypes from Duke of York Island. (G) Albert Stewart Meek (1871–1943), collector of the Stegonotus guentheri and S. reticulatus syntypes. (H) Wilhelm Adolfovich Lindholm (1874–1935), author of the species name diehli. (I) Nelly de Rooij (1883–1964), author of the species name florensis. (J) Franz Werner (1867–1939), author of the species names dorsalis and poechi. (K) Rudolf Pöch (1870–1921), collector of the Stegonotus dorsalis and S. poechi holotypes, and in whose honor the latter was named. (L) Lothar Forcart (1902–1990), author of the species name sutteri.

FIGURE 21. Holotype of Herbertophis plumbeus Macleay, 1884, AMS R31895, an adult female from near Ingham, Queensland, Australia. Shown are the entire specimen (TTL = 1275 mm) in (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views, and its head in (C) dorsal, (D) right lateral, and (E) ventral views.