Bothrophthalmus Peters, 1863

Marques, Mariana P., Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Blackburn, David C. & Bauer, Aaron M., 2018, Diversity and Distribution of the Amphibians and Terrestrial Reptiles of Angola Atlas of Historical and Bibliographic Records (1840 - 2017), Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 65, pp. 1-501 : 331

Genus Bothrophthalmus Peters, 1863

Bothrophthalmus lineatus Peters, 1863 RED-BLACK STRIPED SNAKE Bothrophthalmus lineatus (nomem nudum) Schlegel in Lichtenstein and von Martens 1856:27. Type locality:

“Goldküste.”

Elaphis (Bothrophthalmus) lineatus Peters 1863:287 . Holotype: ZMB 1820 (“aus dem Museum zu Leiden”).

Type locality: “Guinea” [= Ghana] fide Hughes and Barry (1969:1013) .

Bothrophthalmus lineatus lineatus : Laurent (1950b:8, 1954:44, 1964a:93), Loveridge (1957:249), Thys van den Audernaede (1966:32).

Bothrophthalmus lineatus : Spawls et al. (2004:316), Chirio and LeBreton (2007:386), Wallach et al.

(2014:112).

Global conservation status (IUCN): Not

Evaluated.

Global distribution: The species is known from Uganda, southwest to northern

Angola, west to Guinea, with sporadic records from Uganda and west Rwanda.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 290): The species is known from extreme northeastern

Angola. Lunda Norte: “Dundo” [-7.36667,

20.83333] ( Laurent 1950b:8, 1954a:44; Thys van den Audernaede 1966:32); “Riv. Luachimo, Dundo” [-7.38333, 20.85000] ( Laurent

1964a:93); “Riv. Mussungue, environs de

Dundo” [-7.41667, 20.83333] ( Laurent

1964a:93).

Taxonomic and distributional notes:

The original use of the name was as a nomen

MAP 290. Distribution of Bothrophthalmus lineatus in nudum in the Nomenclator of Lichtenstein and Angola.

von Martens (1856), who attributed the name to Schlegel, but provided no details other than a locality. Peters’ (1863) description used this name, again attributed to Schlegel, but as the description itself was that of Peters, he alone is the authority for the nomen. Authorship of the Nomenclator has been cited in various ways. Lichtenstein alone is often given credit for names in this work, but the preface states that the majority of the preparation of the Nomenclator, including the descriptions, was due to von Martens (see Harris and Kluge 1984; Ulber 2003). David Weinland also contributed to the publication ( Adler 2012), although his status as an author on the publication is unresolved.