Coluber holochrous Günther, 1863a :59

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 : 22-25

Coluber holochrous Günther, 1863a:59

Taxonomic status. Junior synonym of S. modestus . The species holochrous is the type species of the genus Lielaphis (described as a subgenus of Colubri). Synonyms. None.

Original name. Coluber holochrous Günther, 1863a:59 . Albert Günther (1830–1914; Fig. 3K ) was a German zoologist, whose influential position as Keeper of Zoology (head of the zoology department) at the British Museum of Natural History (now The Natural History Museum) led him to become one of the most productive reptile taxonomists of all time ( Uetz 2010). In his species definition, of C. holochrous Günther (1863a) specified that the body coloration was “uniform brownish grey.” We therefore assume that the species epithet (the Greek prefix holoplus the suffix chro[m]us = all one color) was chosen to reflect this uniform coloration. The species description was presented in English. The photographic portrait of Günther ( Fig. 3K ; public domain) was taken in ca. 1900 and is housed in the collection of the BMNH.

Holotype. BMNH 1946.1 .11.40 ( Fig. 12 ; Table 1), formerly BMNH 63.3 .28.31, an adult male, illustrated by Günther (1863a: Fig. 11 ).

Type locality. “North Ceram” [northern Seram Island, Maluku Province, Indonesia].

Collection. In Boulenger’s (1893) Catalogue, the specimen is listed as the “ Type of L [ielaphis] holochrous ,” and it is implied that it was collected by Pieter Bleeker (although the specific designation of “C.” for “collector” used elsewhere in Boulenger’s listing is not printed in this case). However, this could merely indicate that Bleeker had shipped the specimen to London. Bleeker (1856) reported that his party left Ambon for the Banda Islands on 11 October 1855 and made a stop of only a few hours at Amahai on the south coast of Seram. Therefore, Bleeker would have been unable to collect this specimen himself in northern Seram, and it was most likely sent to him by someone in his network of suppliers, including Rosenberg, who is known to have collected there.

Key characteristics of the holotype. O (915) mm SVL + O (277) mm TL = 43 in [1092 mm] (1192) mm TTL. V ♂ = 206 (206), SC ♂ = 87 (87), SCR ♂ = 0.30 (0.30), D = O (17-17-15), SL E = 3+4 (3+4), SL = 7 (7), IL = 8 (8), IL G = 5 (4). We believe that Günther must have counted the fifth infralabial scale as touching the anterior genial, even though that scale’s anteromedial corner does not touch the genial, but is positioned diagonally opposite. Since we do not believe that this character state has changed during preservation, we believe it to be Günther’s error.

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

Comments. Following the description of this species, Günther (1863a) discussed the division of Colubri 10 into subgenera, listing Coluber , Elaphis , Cynophis , Spilotes , and Coryphodon , and referencing his Catalogue of Colubrine Snakes ( Günther 1858). He noted that the species he described under the name holochrous did not fit into any of these subgenera and proposed the name Lielaphis as a sixth group, defined in the text, to accommodate C. holochrous as the type species and referring Spilotes samarensis to this new subgenus. His paper on new reptile records from Seram therefore not only featured the description of the species C. holochrous , it also originated the genus-level name Lielaphis.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Selected 19 th Century authors and collectors of Stegonotus species. (A) Hermann Schlegel (1804–1884), author of the species name modestus. (B) André Marie Constant Duméril (1774–1860), co-author with (C) and (D) of the genus name Stegonotus and the species names cucullatus, lividus, and muelleri. (C) Gabriel Bibron (1806–1848). (D) Auguste Henri André Duméril (1812–1870). (E) René-Primevère Lesson (1794–1849), co-collector (with Prosper Garnot; no image available) of the L. cucullatum holotype. (F) Pieter van Oort (1804–1834), co-collector (with Salomon Müller and Heinrich Macklot; no images available) of the L. lividum syntypes. (G) Pieter Bleeker (1819–1878), author of the species names greineri (and perhaps collector of its holotype) and rosenbergii. (H) Hermann von Rosenberg (1817–1888), collector of the Coronella rosenbergii holotype and the person for whom the species was named. (I) Wilhelm Karl Hartwig Peters (1815–1883), author of the species name samarensis. (J) Fedor Jagor (1816–1900), collector of the Spilotes samarensis holotype. (K) Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther (1830–1914), author of the genus name Zamenophis as well as the species names holochrous, batjanensis, and australis. The species Stegonotus guentheri was named in Günther’s honor. (L) Adolf Bernhard Meyer (1840–1911), author of the species names magnus and parvus and collector of the type material.

FIGURE 11. Holotype of Spilotes samarensis Peters, 1861, ZMB 4294, reported to be an adult male with TTL = 2070 mm in the original description, from Samar Island, The Philippines. The specimen is a rolled up skin with only parts of the tail still retaining a small amount of bone and tissue. Shown are views of the head in (A) dorsal, (B) right lateral, and (C) ventral views.

FIGURE 12. Holotype of Coluber holochrous Günther, 1863a, BMNH 1946.1.11.40, an adult male from Seram Island, Maluku Province, Indonesia. Shown are the entire specimen (TTL = 1192 mm) in (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views, and its head in (C) dorsal, (D) right lateral, and (E) ventral views.