Lycodon darnleyensis Macleay, 1877 :38

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 : 36-37

Lycodon darnleyensis Macleay, 1877:38

Taxonomic status. Junior synonym of S. australis .

Synonyms. None.

Original name. Lycodon Darnleyensis Macleay, 1877:38 . William Macleay (1820–1891; Fig. 17C ) was an Australian naturalist and politician, who personally financed the voyage of the sailing ship Chevert to New Guinea, the first Australian foreign exploration. He named this species for one of the islands in the Torres Strait Archipelago. The species description was presented in English. The undated photograph of Macleay ( Fig. 17C ; public domain) is from the archives of the AMS.

Holotype. AMS R31894 ( Fig. 20 ; Table 1), an adult female.

Type locality. “Islands of Torres Straits and Hall Sound, New Guinea ” [Darnley Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia, ca. 9.5870°S, 143.7710°E, by implication]. Even though Macleay (1877) did not specify a type locality, it is unequivocally provided by the species name. Darnley (or Erub, in the indigenous language) is a small (5.5 km 2) volcanogenic island, lying only ca. 80 km off the coast of Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Collector. The Chevert anchored at Darnley Island (called Darnly Island in the ship’s log) from 31 July–12 August 1875 ( Davidson 2017). There were daily trips to the island by members of the research party, so it is not possible to pinpoint the collection date with greater accuracy.

Key characteristics of the holotype. 661 (720) mm SVL + “ 6 inches ” [152] (145+) mm TL = “ 2 feet 8 inches ” [813] (865+) mm TTL . V ♀ = 198 (198), SC ♀ = 53+ (53+), SCR ♀ = O (O), D = O-17-O (17-17-15), SL E = 4+5 (4+5), SL = 9 (9), IL = 10 (10), IL G = O (5).

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

Comments. The set of infralabial scales on the right side of the holotype presents one unusual feature, a fragmentation of IL9 into two small, shallow scales, each of which we counted to arrive at our count of IL = 10 L. Boulenger (1893) synonymized the species with S. cucullatus , he indicated some doubt regarding his decision by including a question mark before the species name.

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 20. Holotype of Lycodon darnleyensis Macleay, 1877, AMS R31894, an adult female from Darnley Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. Shown are the entire specimen (TTL = ca. 865 mm) in (A) dorsal and (B) ventral views, and its head in (C) dorsal, (D) right lateral, and (E) ventral views.