Stegonotus lividus Kaiser & Kaiser & O'Shea 2018, n. comb.
Creators: name: Kaiser, Christine M.
name: Kaiser, Hinrich
name: O'Shea, Mark
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Colubridae
Stegonotus
Stegonotus lividus

description: Stegonotus lividus (Müller in Duméril et al., 1854:381) n. comb.
Taxonomic status. Lycodon lividum has heretofore been considered as a synonym of S. modestus. With the restriction of that species to some of the islands in the central Moluccas, and given the absence of the neck band, smaller adult size, and the much lower SC count in L. lividum, we hereby remove this species from the synonymy of S. modestus. As a member of the genus Stegonotus, the species name needs to be emended to lividus. This population therefore takes the name Stegonotus lividus n. comb.
Synonyms. None.
Original name. Lycodon lividum S. Müller in Duméril et al., 1854:381. The Latin term lividus, meaning “bluish metal-colored” or “lead-colored,” was likely selected to reflect the coloration of the syntypes. The species description was presented in French.
Syntypes. RMNH. RENA 325 A (Fig. 6 A–E; Table 1) and 325B (Fig. 6 F–H), two specimens, both likely adult females.
7. In the language of Biak islanders the suffix –ri is added as an emphasis in spoken communication. The spoken word dore-ri means “bay.” Considering the geographical perspective from Biak Island, this dore-ri was not just any bay, but specifically the largest bay on the nearby mainland, whose small islands (such as Mansinam) had been settled by people from Biak. Unfortunately, this means that the colonial terms Dorery Bay or Hâvre Dorey translate to “bay bay,” a duplication similar to the Indonesian-Portuguese construct for the country name Timor-Leste, meaning “east-east.” In the interest of retaining a unique name for the bay on which the city of Manokwari lies, we believe that combining the traditional Biak name doreri with the English noun “bay” works best, the nonsensical duplication notwithstanding. Thus, this locality should prop-
erly be known as Doreri Bay.
8. There appears to be some confusion over the year when this publication appeared. The information was published inPart 1 of Volume 2 of the French naval officer Louis Isidore Duperrey's (1786–1865) series describing the findings of some of the voyages he captained. The publication year 1830 is printed on the frontispiece. Chapter IX was authored by Lesson and, according to the meticulous research by Sherborn & Woodward (1901, 1906) the volume was released on 12 June 1830.
Type locality. The species was discovered on “l’île de Pulo-Samao” [Semau Island, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia].
Collectors. Exploration of Timor Island by the Dutch Commissie was not limited to the area around Kupang in the southwest but included several sojourns into the interior as well as to the nearby islands of Semau and Kambing. The collecting was done by Müller and Pieter van Oort (1804–1834; Fig. 3F), under the direction and with the participation of Heinrich Macklot (1799–1832). Specimens in the RMNH collected at this time usually include the notation “MM,” indicating specimens collected by Müller and Macklot. Even though we have not been able to find specific dates for a visit to Semau by the Commissie team, elimination of dates during which collections were made elsewhere allow us to state that the visit to the islands must have occurred in mid-1829 (see dates provided by Steenis-Kruseman 1950). The image of Van Oort (Fig. 3F; public domain) is a self-portrait originally colored in red chalk from the collection of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Key characteristics of the syntypes. RMNH. RENA 325 A: 420 (489) mm SVL + 140 (118) mm TL = 560 (607) mm TTL. V ♀ = 196 (197), SC ♀ = 72 (67), SCR ♀ = 0.27 (0.25), D = O-17-O (17-17-15), SL E = O (3+4), SL = O (7), IL = O (9), IL G = O (4). RMNH. RENA 325 B: O (480) mm SVL + O (120) mm TL = O (600) mm TTL. V ♀ = O (199), SC ♀ = O (68), SCR ♀ = O (0.25), D = O (17-17-15), SL E = O (3+4), SL = O (7), IL = O (8), IL G = O (4).
Key characteristics of the species. There are only two specimens of Stegonotus from Semau in museum collections, the two syntypes of S. lividus. As a consequence, it is not possible to adequately characterize the species. Values for V and SC appear to be near 200 and 70, respectively, with tail length around one quarter of the total length of the animal based on SCR values, and D = 17-17-15. Other consistent scale counts include SL = 7, SL E = 3+4, IL = 9, and IL G = 4.
Comments. In their original description, Duméril et al. (1854) listed scale counts for a single specimen, and the listed numbers conform almost exactly to our counts for RMNH.RENA 325A. However, near the end of their description, the authors stated that “Le Musée de Leyde possede les seuls individus qu’il y ait recueillis et que nous avons étudiés.” [The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie has the only specimens that Müller collected and which we have studied.] Use of the plural “les seuls individus” clearly indicates that more than one specimen was used to compile the species description, even if the numbers were provided only for one. In order to avoid any confusion over which specimen was used for the species description and to enhance the stability of the species, we hereby designate RMNH.RENA 325A as the lectotype of S. lividus, rendering RMNH.RENA 325B as a paralectotype (Code, Article 74.7).
Stegonotus lividus was listed in the synonymy of S. modestus by McDowell (1972), but McDowell flagged this synonymy by adding a question mark in front of the species name—a question mark that our new data show to be justified. Iskandar & Colijn (2002) considered the possibility that S. lividus could be a synonym of S. florensis, but this was dispelled by de Lang (2011) based on a series of comparative characteristics. The latter considered S. lividus to potentially be a synonym of S. modestus and included that species, based on the S. lividus records, among his category of doubtful records for the Lesser Sunda Islands. De Lang (2011) also raised the issue that the locality information for the type specimens of S. lividus could have been “mixed up somewhere in the past,” given that the collector Salomon Müller traveled to Ambon, where S. modestus occurs but did not specifically list these specimens in his account of his travels (Müller 1857). However, none of the descriptions of S. lividus include mention of the characteristic neck band of S. modestus and additional morphological differences exist and allow differentiation of S. lividus and S. modestus.
description: Published as part of Kaiser, Christine M., Kaiser, Hinrich & O'Shea, Mark, 2018, The taxonomic history of Indo-Papuan groundsnakes, genus Stegonotus Duméril et al., 1854 (Colubridae), with some taxonomic revisions and the designation of a neotype for S. parvus (Meyer, 1874), pp. 1-73 in Zootaxa 4512 (1) on pages 14-16, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4512.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2607575