Stigmochelys Gray, 1873

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 : 172-173

Genus Stigmochelys Gray, 1873

Stigmochelys pardalis ( Bell, 1828) LEOPARD TORTOISE

Testudo pardalis Bell 1828:420 , Suppl. Pl. 25. Type: Not located, originally in the Bell Collection , part of which was later donated to the OUM (King and Burke 1989) . Type locality: “in Promont. Bonae Spei”

(collector unknown), [= Cape of Good Hope], Western Cape Province, South Africa. Testudo pardalis : Bocage (1867b:217, 1870:68, 1895a:3), Monard (1937b:147), Hellmich (1957a:32). Testudo pardalis pardalis : Mertens (1937a:5). Geochelone pardalis babcocki : Loveridge and Williams (1957:235). Geochelone pardalis : Iverson (1986:143, 1992:252), Broadley (1989b:43), Le et al. (2006:524). Stigmochelys pardalis : Fritz and Bininda-Emonds (2007:305), Fritz and Havaš (2007:297), Branch (2008:66),

Fritz et al. (2010:348), Vetter (2011:91), Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2014:406), Ceríaco et al.

(2016a:54), Conradie et al. (2016:27).

Global conservation status (IUCN): Least Concern.

Global distribution: This species is distributed from southern Sudan and Ethiopia southwards through eastern Africa to South Africa, and northwestward to Namibia and southern Angola.

Ocurrences in Angola (Map 118): This species occurs in southwestern Angola and eastwards along the Namibian border.

Benguela: “Benguella” [-12.58333, 13.41667]

( Bocage 1867b:217, 1895a:3; Hellmich

1957a:32, Loveridge and Williams 1957:251);

“Cubal” [-13.03333, 14.25000] ( Mertens

1937a:5; Loveridge and Williams 1957:251).

Namibe: “Capangombe” [-15.10000,

13.15000] (Loveridge and Williams 1957:251;

Ceríaco et al. 2016a:54); “Mossamedes”

[-15.20000, 12.15000] ( Bocage 1895a:3;

Ceríaco et al. 2016a:54). Cunene: “Mupa”

[-16.18333, 15.75000] ( Monard 1937b:147;

Loveridge and Williams 1957:251); “Forte

Roçadas” [-16.73333, 14.98333] ( Monard

1937b:147; Loveridge and Williams

1957:251); “Dombodola” [-17.33333, MAP 118. Distribution of Stigmochelys pardalis in 14.83333] ( Monard 1937b:147; Loveridge and Angola.

Williams 1957:251). Cuando Cubango: “Cuando basin (44a)” [-17.57333, 23.26000] ( Conradie et al. 2016:9-10, 27).

Taxonomic and distributional notes: Bell’s (1828) description notes that the type was in his own collection at the time. The majority of the collection was purchased by F. W. Hope, who donat-

ed it to the Oxford University Museum in 1862. However, a recent catalogue of the types there reveals that the type of S. pardalis is not present (Nowak-Kemp and Fritz 2010). Stigmochelys pardalis ( Bell, 1828) was previously included in the genus Testudo and more recently, in the genus Geochelone (Loveridge and Williams 1957; Iverson 1992). Based on data from mitochondrial and nuclear genes, Le et al. (2006:524, 528) indicated a sister relationship between S. pardalis and Psammobates and subsumed it within the latter genus. However, based on morphological differences, Fritz and Bininda-Emonds (2007) placed it in a monotypic Stigmochelys , which has been accepted by subsequent authors. Loveridge and Williams (1975) recognized two subspecies for Geochelone (= Stigmichelis) pardalis ( Bell, 1828) G. p. pardalis and G. p. babcocki, also distinguished by Le et al. (2006) and Fritz and Havaš (2007). Iverson (1992) formerly questioned the recognition of the two subspecies and recently Fritz et al. (2010) concluded that there is no rationale for recognizing subspecies within S. pardalis . Broadley (1989b) and Iverson (1986, 1992) presented distribution maps for the species with some new Angolan localities but without mentioning the localities by name.