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Issue: Vol. 37 No. 1: 19 Mar. 2024
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2024-03-19
DOI: 10.11646/bionomina.37.1.4
Page range: 70-73
Abstract views: 2
PDF downloaded: 0

Wagler vs. Fitzinger: Leposternon microcephalus, a fight over gender (Sauria, Amphisbaenidae)

Society for Southeast Asian Herpetology; Calle Rio Segura 26; 30600 Archena/Murcia; Spain
Sauria Amphisbaenidae Leposternon microcephalus gender

Abstract

This short note provides some insight into an academic “battle” between early 19th century herpetologists about a small but interesting nomenclatural issue, namely the grammatically correct gender of a species epithet. Most texts used in the current note (Wagler in Spix 1824; Fitzinger 1826a‒b; Schlegel 1826; Wagler 1827) were published in 19th century German, which sometimes made use of vocabulary that is no longer employed nowadays. The old German texts are translated here into English in a way that they reflect modern language as much as possible.

References

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