Annotated catalogue of acrodont lizard types in the collection of the Naturalis Biodiverstity Center (Squamata: Agamidae, Chamaeleonidae)
Author
Dondorp, Esther
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Author
Denzer, Wolfgang
0000-0003-2619-4555
Society for Southeast Asian Herpetology, Calle Rio Segura 26, 30600 Archena / Murcia, Spain.
lobo@herpetologica.org
text
Zootaxa
2024
2024-01-18
5403
1
65
79
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5403.1.4
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5403.1.4
1175-5326
10561558
7458460D-2367-48C5-9ACE-D28457C27463
Lacerta scutata
Linnaeus, 1758: 201
=
Lyriocephalus scutatus
(
Linnaeus, 1758
)
Syntypes
(status uncertain):
RMNH.RENA.3015
,
Ceylon
(added later), anc.[ienne] cab.[inet[;
RMNH.RENA.3062
,
Ceylon
, van Lidth de Jeude, 1866
Type locality
: Amboina (ex errore)
Remarks
: In recent literature the type is considered untraceable (see Amarasinghe
et al
. 2009) and an illustration in
Seba (1734
, Vol. 1, pl. 109, fig. 3) is treated as the
iconotype
, i.e. the specimen depicted constitutes the actual type. However,
Denzer & Dondorp (2023a)
suggested that the specimens in the Naturalis collection may have been from Seba’s collection and possibly constitute the original specimen(s), i.e. type material, on which Seba’s illustration was based. Briefly, a collector named A(e)rnout Vosmaer bought the specimen(s) at the auction of Seba’s cabinet in 1752. Vosmaer’s collection was later sold to the Dutch Princes Anne of Hanover and integrated into the Cabinet of the Stadtholder (RMNH.RENA.3015). This collection was ceased by the French in 1795, a considerable part of which was returned to
the Netherlands
in 1815 and may have contained this particular specimen. Alternatively, Vosmaer had been hiding part of his private collection and important items of the Stadtholder collection from the French (see also
Pieters 1980
). At least
one specimen
(RMNH.RENA.3062) from Vosmaer’s collection came later into the hands of van Lidth de Jeude. The returned items from Stadtholder collection were incorporated into the new founded Rijksmuseum (now Naturalis) in 1820 and parts of the van Lidth de Jeude collection were acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1866. A detailed report on the possible ways how the specimens ended up in the Naturalis collection was provided by
Denzer & Dondorp (2023a)
.
Lacerta scutata
Linnaeus, 1758
is the type species of the genus
Lyriocephalus
Merrem, 1819
(see
Denzer & Dondorp 2023a
for details) and the type species of the genus
Lophurus
Fleming, 1822
(
Feuer & Smith 1972
).