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) Kaiser, Christine M. Kaiser, Hinrich O’Shea, Mark Zootaxa 2018 2018-11-05 4512 1 1 73 (Gunther, 1872: 21) Kaiser & Kaiser & O’Shea 21 2018 Gunther 21 1872 [151,639,151,178] Reptilia Colubridae Stegonotus GBIF Animalia Squamata 26 27 Chordata species australis comb. nov.   Synonyms.  Lycodon darnleyensis Macleay, 1877;  Herbertophis plumbeus Macleay, 1884.  Original name.  Zamenophis australis Günther, 1872:21. The genus name references  Zamenis, a genus of colubrid snakes from Europe and the Middle East, which Günther considered to possess the same suite of characters as his new form. Given the well-defined distribution of  Zamenis, Günther (1872)decided to place his new Australian species into a separate genus, using “the entire anal shield” as the single defining characteristic. The genus name is a composite noun, including the genus name  Zamenisand the Greek ophis, meaning “a snake like  Zamenis. The species epithet could reflect the collecting locality, Australia, or it may have been used in recognition that this was the species of  Stegonotuswith the most southerly distribution (  australis= Latin, southern). The species description was presented in English.     Holotype. BMNH 1946.1.14.93, formerly BMNH 68.6.16.3 ( Fig. 14; Table 1), an adult male.  Type locality.“Cape York” [ Queensland, Australia]. This locality could either refer to the Cape York Peninsula, a large cone-shaped landmass that juts northwards from the northeastern side of the Australian continent to give its east coast a characteristic horn pointing towards New Guinea, or to Cape York, which is the name for the tip of the peninsula. This tropical peninsula was connected to New Guineaacross the Torres Strait for 40,000 of the last 2 million years ( Harris et al. 2008).  Collection.In his account, Günther provided a listing of “the new Species procured and described since June 1868” ( Günther 1872:14), which included their provenance. Under the name  Zamenophis australis, Güntherlisted the specimen as having been purchased. Based on information on the original label, the holotypeof  Z. australiswas collected by a “Mr. Higgins,” but no further information is provided. Edmund Thomas Higgins (ca. 1816– 1891) was a London-based dealer in natural history and geological specimens, who traded in Australian wildlife in the 1860s and visited Australiahimself twice ( Torrens 1994; Horton et al. 2016). However, it is not possible to restrict the type locality further.   Key characteristics of the  holotype.470 (503) mm SVL + 140 (135) mm TL = 610 (638) mm TTL. V  ♂= 204 (205), SC  ♂= 79 (77), SCR   ♂= 0.28 (0.27), D = O (17-17-15), SL E= 4+5 (4+5), SL = 9 (9), IL= O (10), IL G= O (5).  Key characteristics of the species.In order to avoid any confusion with populations of  Stegonotusin the Northern Territories of Australia(the subject of a separate study), we limit our discussion of the species  australisto Queensland, the state in which the typelocality is located. We were able to examine 35 specimensthat, based on their collecting locality and morphological characteristics, could be members of  S. australis( 11 ♀♀, 20 ♂♂, four of unknown sex). Characteristics include V  ♀= 178–215 (200 ± 11.2), V  ♂= 191–220 (211 ± 6.9); SC  ♀= 69–87 (78 ± 5.7), SC  ♂= 77–88 (83 ± 5.0); SCR  ♀= 0.28, SCR  ♂= 0.28; D = 17-17-15 (100%); SL E= 4+5 (100%); SL = 8 (n = 21, 57%) or 9 (n = 16, 43%); IL = 8 (n = 9, 24%), or 9 (n = 28, 76%); IL G= 5. We note that the standard deviation of the ventral count in females is quite high compared with other species of  Stegonotus, and we wonder whether this could indicate that two distinct species may be lumped into our sample.   Comments.The species was synonymized with  S. cucullatusby Boulenger (1893). 2028140009 [199,1250,151,176] BMNH 27 28 BMNH 1946.1, BMNH 68.6 1 holotype 2028140006 [506,613,620,645] SVL 27 28 1 holotype 2028140025 SCR 27 28 2 2 holotype 2028140028 [443,1175,658,687] IL 27 28 1 1 holotype