Stegonotus florensis (de Rooij, 1917 :110 )

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 : 46-47

Stegonotus florensis (de Rooij, 1917:110)

Taxonomic status. Valid.

Synonyms. Stegonotus sutteri Forcart, 1953 .

Original name. Lycodon florensis de Rooij, 1917:110 . Petronella Johanna “Nelly” de Rooij (1883–1964; Fig. 17I ) was a Dutch zoologist and, from 1907–1922, the curator of the collection in the Zoological Museum at the University of Amsterdam. During this time, de Rooij compiled two important volumes, presenting the first comprehensive descriptions of the reptiles in the Indo-Australian Archipelago (de Rooij 1915, 1917). It is noteworthy that during her career de Rooij experienced heavy discrimination by policies then in place that discriminated against women ( Beolens et al. 2011), first against her academic advance, which required her to complete her doctorate (earned in 1907) in Zürich, Switzerland, and later in her position as curator in Amsterdam, from which she elected to resign in 1922 at the age of only 39 due to discriminatory administrative reforms ( Adler 2007). Unfortunately, this effectively ended de Rooij’s research career. De Rooij’s portrait ( Fig. 17I ) is from the archives of the RMNH. The species name reflects the type locality, Flores Island. The species description was presented in English.

Holotype. ZMA 11080, an adult female ( Fig. 26 ; Table 1). The specimen is now housed in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center , Leiden, The Netherlands. The specimen was figured by de Rooij (1917: Figs. 46, 47).

Type locality. “ Flores (near Kotting)” [Koting, ca. 3 km S Maumere, Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, ca. 8.68°S, 122.19°E]. The catalog entry for the specimen in the ZMA collection reads “ Flores, Omgeving van Kotting, Maumeri-Rivier” [ Flores, vicinity of Koting, Maumere River], and in the Koting area there are numerous small tributaries that drain into one larger riverbed that runs through the city of Maumere on the north coast of Flores.

Collection. According to the catalog entry in the ZMA collection, the specimen was collected by G.A.J. van de Sande, a member of the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië [Royal Institute for Linguistics, Geography, and Ethnology of the Dutch Indies], who died in 1909 ( Anonymous 1911).

Key characteristics of the holotype. 456 (447) mm SVL + 112 (109) mm TL = 568 (556) mm TTL. V ♀ = 218 (217), SC ♀ = 66 (65), SCR ♀ = 0.23 (0.23), D = O-21-O (21-21-19), SL E = 3+4+5 (3+4+5), SL = 9R 8L (9R 8L), IL = O (10), IL G = O (5). Other than S. heterurus and S. sutteri (see below), this species is the only other Stegonotus with unpaired subcaudal scales.

Key characteristics of the species. We were only able to find and examine two specimens of this form from Flores Island (the terra typica) in collections accessible to us, the female holotype and a male specimen in the Western Australian Museum, Perth, Australia (WAM 104606) collected in 1991. The dearth of specimens in collections makes any assessment of the characteristics of S. florensis at the species level tenuous at best. Characteristics include V ♀ = 217, V ♂ = 230; SC ♀ = 65, SC ♂ = 82; SCR ♀ = 0.23, SCR ♂ = 0.26; D = 21-21-19; SL E = 3+4+5; SL = 8 or 9; IL = 9 or 10; IL G = 5. It appears that sexual dimorphism in the numbers of ventral and subcaudal scales might exist, with males possessing higher numbers of both and a relatively longer tail. However, given the low sample size this is speculative.

Comments. Based on x-ray images, Forcart (1954) noted that L. florensis did not possess the characteristic separation dividing the maxillary teeth into two sets, with some enlarged teeth anterior to the gap. Instead, he considered the maxillary dentition of L. florensis to reflect the characteristics used by Duméril et al. (1854) to the genus Stegonotus . It should be noted that this specimens presents with an aberration in the set of supralabial scales on both sides of the head. Unrecognized by de Rooij (1917) and drawn incorrectly in her line drawing of the right lateral side of the head, SL5 appears to be divided into two parts. While this does not change the overall supralabial count, it influences whether SL5 contacts the eye or not. In the second specimen of S. florensis we examined, as well as in all specimens of the likely related S. sutteri (see below), SL5 is a single, large supralabial. De Lang (2011) stated that specimens of S. florensis he studied varied in SL E, with some specimens showing values of 3+4 and 4+ 5 in addition to the diagnostic 3+4+5. We cannot confirm or deny this, but none of the specimens of S. florensis (as well as of S. sutteri , see below) we examined had conditions of SL E other than 3+4+5. All other data listed by de Lang (2011) conform to our concept of the species S. florensis .

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 26. Holotype of Stegonotus florensis (de Rooij, 1917), ZMA 11080, an adult female from Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Shown are the entire specimen (TTL = 556 mm) in (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views, and its head in (C) dorsal, (D) right lateral, and (E) ventral views.