Status of early 19th-century names authored in parallel by Wied and Schinz for South American reptiles and amphibians, with designations of three nomina protecta

Title Variants

Alternative: Early 19th-century names

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, no. 3714

By

Myers, Charles W.

Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut Urbano
Vanzolini, P. E. (Paulo Emilio)

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

[New York], American Museum of Natural History, c2011

Notes

Caption title.

"May 11, 2011."

Prince Maximilian zu Wied's great exploration of coastal Brazil in 1815-1817 resulted in important collections of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, many of which were new species later described by Wied himself. The bulk of his collection was purchased for the American Museum of Natural History in 1869, although many "type specimens" had disappeared earlier. Wied carefully identified his localities but did not designate type specimens or type localities, which are taxonomic concepts that were not yet established. Information and manuscript names on a fraction (17 species) of his Brazilian reptiles and amphibians were transmitted by Wied to Prof. Heinrich Rudolf Schinz at the University of Zurich. Schinz included these species (credited to their discoverer "Princ. Max.") in the second volume of Das Thierreich ... (1822). Most are junior objective synonyms of names published by Wied. However, six of the 17 names used by Schinz predate Wied's own publications. Three were manuscript names never published by Wied because he determined the species to be previously known. (1) Lacerta vittata Schinz, 1822 (a nomen oblitum) = Lacerta striata sensu Wied (a misidentification, non Linnaeus nec sensu Merrem) = Kentropyx calcarata Spix, 1825, herein qualified as a nomen protectum. (2) Polychrus virescens Schinz, 1822 = Lacerta marmorata Linnaeus, 1758 (now Polychrus marmoratus). (3) Scincus cyanurus Schinz, 1822 (a nomen oblitum) = Gymnophthalmus quadrilineatus sensu Wied (a misidentification, non Linnaeus nec sensu Merrem) = Micrablepharus maximiliani (Reinhardt and Lütken, "1861" [1862]), herein qualified as a nomen protectum. Qualifying Scincus cyanurus Schinz, 1822, as a nomen oblitum also removes the problem of homonymy with the later-named Pacific skink Scincus cyanurus Lesson (= Emoia cyanura). The remaining three names used by Schinz are senior objective synonyms that take priority over Wied's names. (4) Bufo cinctus Schinz, 1822, is senior to Bufo cinctus Wied, 1823; both, however, are junior synonyms of Bufo crucifer Wied, 1821 = Chaunus crucifer (Wied). (5) Agama picta Schinz, 1822, is senior to Agama picta Wied, 1823, requiring a change of authorship for this poorly known species, to be known as Enyalius pictus (Schinz). (6) Lacerta cyanomelas Schinz, 1822, predates Teius cyanomelas Wied, 1824 (1822-1831)--both nomina oblita. Wied's illustration and description shows cyanomelas as apparently conspecific with the recently described but already well-known Cnemidophorus nativo Rocha et al., 1997, which is the valid name because of its qualification herein as a nomen protectum. The preceding specific name cyanomelas (as corrected in an errata section) is misspelled several ways in different copies of Schinz's original description ("cyanomlas," "cyanom las," and "cyanom"). Loosening, separation, and final loss of the last three letters of movable type in the printing chase probably accounts for the variant misspellings.

Subjects

(Heinrich Rudolf), , 1777-1861 , 1782-1867 , Abbildungen zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens , American Museum of Natural History , Amphibians , Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien , Brazil , Catalogs , Catalogs and collections , Classification , Cnemidophorus nativo , Kentropyx calcarata , Lizards , Micrablepharus maximiliani , Natural history collections , New York , New York (State) , Nomenclature , Prinz von, , Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 , Reptiles , Schinz, H. R , Thierreich , Wied, Maximilian,

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no.3714 2011

Language

English

Identifiers

OCLC: 722411145