1999

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 8, pp. 18-24

The Dates of Publication of Amphibian and Reptile Names by Blanford andStoliczka in the Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
INDRANEIL DASMuseum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Present address: Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Consen'ation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300
Kota Samaralian, Sarawak, Malaysia, email: idas@maillwst.unimas.my
Abstract.- The dates of publications of the Proceedings and the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal arenames of amphibians and reptiles were proposed, along with brief descriptions, by W. T.
Blanford and F. Stoliczka in the monthly Proceedings before their intended formal description in the Journal, indiscussed. Several

some cases, a year before. These earlier publications constitute formal descriptions according to the Code ofZoological Nomenclature. A listing of two genera (one amphibian and one reptile) and 24 species (threeamphibians and 21 reptiles) is appended; the type localities include Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India, Myanmar andMalaysia.

Key words.- Amphibians, reptiles, dates of publication. Proceedings and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Founded in 1784 by the Orientalist, Sir William Jones

to the informationon the cover page, as opposed tobiographic

and separate from the more widely circulated Journal,sketch), the Asiatic Society of Bengal, with its head-

which was published only once in two to three months

quarters in Calcutta, has played, according to a report(Mitra, 1885). As mentioned

in Nature at the turn of the century, "...a leading partthesee(1746-1794;

inCannon,

1960,

afor

the exploration of the natural history, philology,

antiquities,and other branches of scientific inquiry

connectedwithfirston an untitled page ofissue, the separation of the Journal (whichwas issued in a "new series" between 1905 and 1934,
when the Proceedings was reunited with the Journal)of zoological specimens (Bose, 1885), examples ofboth plants and animals did start to arrive from vari-from the Proceedings was "In accordance with theannouncement of the Council in the Annual Report
read at the Annual General Meeting held on the 1 1th
January, 1865" (Blanford and Heeley, 1865). Eachous parts of the British Indian Empire, and occasion-fascicle of the Proceedings

theEast"(Anonymous,1907).

Although Jones himself was opposed to the collection

from outside. Coupled with the expeditions

comprised 10-30 pages,
and contained reports of the progress of the Society,organized or participated in subsequently by the staffof the Museum of the Society, the Asiatic Society of

the library and coins to the Society's numismatic col-Bengal camelection, exhibition notices,

after the passing of the Museum Act inmembers and lists (and losses) of members, and also,"short notes, which were not deemed fit for introduc-

allyto acquire one of the most importantreferencecollections in the world, which,zoological
1866, came to

the Indian Museum (Fermor, 1936) and is at present

including financial statements, additions of books tocorrespondence fromits

tion into the Journal" (Mitra, 1885).

maintained by the Zoological Survey of India (Sewell,Because the Society's Proceedings was less well1932; Das et al., 1998).

known than the Journal and the ambiguity of descrip-

The periodicals of this two century old institution
included the Journal and the Proceedings, which
gradually replaced several leading oriental journals oftions in abstracts versus in "full papers", the dates ofof amphibians andthe period, including the Asiatick Researches and theassigned incorrectly in subsequent works (e.g., Smith,Calcutta Journal of Natural History.

delaysin publishing the1832,

theoldseries

Because ofJournal (startedcontinuinguntilin

March1904,

see

Chaudhuri, 1956), the Society started the Proceedings
inJanuary1865 (which were issued monthlytill

December 1904). The Proceedings was out "as soon
as possible, after every

monthly meeting", accordingsome of the descriptions of several genera and species
reptilesfrom Asia have been1935; 1943) to the description published in the Journal,

inwhen, in fact, they were validly published earlier,some cases, a year before,

inthe Proceedings.

Some of the leading naturalists of the day read papers
on faunistics, including the descriptions of new taxa,
monthly meetings of the Society, which werereported as "abstracts" in the Proceedings. Thesein theAsiatic Herpeiological Research

1999

propose both new names and provide
and diagnoses, thereby constituting aabstracts

descriptions

valid description according to the Code of Zoological

Nomenclature.

Since the aforementionedVol. 8, p. 19

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Anonymous.

1907.

The Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Nature 75: 511.

fascicles

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names being available before theirmore complete description. In some of the cases, theBlanford. H.

leading to several

titlesof the papers published in the Journal and Pro-ceedings were identical, in others, there were minor
differences, such as the use of the more formal 'Reptilia' inBlanford (1879a) instead of 'reptiles' in Blan-ford (1879b). Regrettably, the type localities of sometaxa are different in the two publications, the Journal

tending to have a more precise type locality. In oneinstance. (Blanford, 1878a), the type locality ("Footof Nawlabu hill, west of Tavoy") is different from thatwhich appeared in the purported formal description(Blanford,1878b: "Foot of Nawlabu Hill, east ofdepicting the new taxon
describedforthefirsttime were provided, thesebeing

Tavoy...").

Ifillustrations

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T 1875a. List of Reptilia and Amphibia

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T "1875"b 1876. List of Reptilia andAmphibia collected by the late Dr. Stoliczka in Kashmir, Ladak, eastern Turkistan, and Wakhan, withdescriptions of new species. Journal of the Asiatic
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On some lizards from Sind,appeared in the Journal. The months and, where available, dates of issue of each fascicle making available

Blanford, W. T. 1875c.

new zoological names are annotated with the references in Table 1. Only names published in the Pro-

Stenodactylus, and Trapelus. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (9): 232-233. [issued Decem-ceedings that are at present attributed to the intended
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Names dealtwith in this communication havewith descriptions ofnewBlanford, W. T. 1876.

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