Gonyosoma margaritatum Peters, 1871

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 268

Gonyosoma margaritatum Peters, 1871 — Erroneous.

Rainbow Tree Snake

Singapore records.

Gonyophis margaritatus — Boulenger, 1891: 290.—Sclater, 1891a: 34.— Boulenger, 1894: 71.— Flower, 1896: 883.— Flower, 1899: 669.—Ridley, 1899: 208.— Boulenger, 1912: 144.— de Rooij, 1917: 107.—Sworder, 1923: 64.— de Haas, 1950: 550.—K.K.P. Lim & L.M. Chou, 1990: 54.—K.K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 1992: 146.—L.M. Chou et al., 1994: 105.— Manthey & Grossmann, 1997: 354.— Iskandar & Colijn, 2001: 63.—K.P. Lim & F.L.K. Lim, 2002: 147.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2008: 169.— Das, 2010: 280.—N. Baker & K.P. Lim, 2012: 169.— Das, 2012a: 42.—Chen et al., 2014: 533.—Wallach et al., 2014: 314.

Gonyosoma margaritatus —Chen et al., 2014: 535.— Das, 2018: 51.

Gonyosoma margaritatum —O’Shea, 2018: 176.

Remarks. Boulenger (1891) examined a large male specimen from Singapore that was collected by Davison, and that was transferred from the Raffles Museum to ZSI (Sclater 1891a). de Haas (1950) and Schulz & Gumprecht (2013) doubted the validity of this record. Gonysoma margaritatum only inhabits higher elevations of Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo (Schulz & Gumprecht 2013), which are not found in Singapore. Thus, it is likely the specimen originated from Peninsular Malaysia or Borneo.

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. No specimens.

Additional Singapore museum specimens. No specimens.