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Issue: Vol. 1764 No. 1: 7 May. 2008
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2008-05-07
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1764.1.6
Page range: 66–68
Abstract views: 58
PDF downloaded: 1

Rediscovery of the holotype of Ditaxodon taeniatus (Peters in Hensel, 1868) (Serpentes: Colubridae) and invalidation of the neotype designation

Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Departamento de Vertebrados. Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brazil
c/o Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Invalidenstraβe 43. D-10115 Berlin, Germany
Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Laboratório de Herpetologia. Rua Benedito Conceição 407. 82810-080 Curitiba PR, Brazil
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Zoology. Rosenstein 1. D-70191 Stuttgart, Germany
Reptilia Serpentes Colubridae

Abstract

Ditaxodon taeniatus is a striped, racer-like colubrid snake inhabiting grassland savannas in southern Brazil. This species was described as Philodryas taeniatus by the then curator of the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (formerly Zoologisches Museum Berlin, ZMB), Wilhelm Peters, from a single specimen collected by Reinhold Hensel in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Peters’ description was published in a paper by Hensel (1868: 331) and, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999: Article 50.1, Recommendation 51E), the correct citation is Ditaxodon taeniatus (Peters in Hensel, 1868). Later, George A. Boulenger (1896: 124) transferred Philodryas taeniatus to the genus Conophis, and Alphonse R. Hoge (1958: 54) created for it the new genus Ditaxodon, which remains monotypic today.

References

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    Boulenger, G.A. (1896) Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 3. British Museum (Natural History), London, xiv + 727 pp.

    Dowling, H.G. (1951a) A proposed standard system of counting ventrals in snakes. British Journal of Herpetology 1, 97–99.

    Dowling, H.G. (1951b) A proposed method of expressing scale reductions in snakes. Copeia 1951(4), 131–134.

    Hensel, R. (1868) Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Wirbelthiere Südbrasiliens. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 34(1), 323–375.

    Hoge, A.R. (1958) Die systematische Stellung von Xenodon punctatus Peters, 1880 und Philodryas taeniatus Hensel, 1868. Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 34, 49–56.

    ICZN (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London. Available from: http://www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp, (12 September 2007).

    Thomas, R.A., Bérnils, R.S., Moura-Leite J.C. & Morato S.A.A. (2006) Redescription of Ditaxodon taeniatus (Hensel, 1868) (Serpentes, Colubridae, Xenodontinae): variation, relationships, and distribution. South American Journal of Herpetology 1(2), 94–101.