Lycodon darnleyensis Macleay, 1877:38

Taxonomic status. Junior synonym of S. australis .

Synonyms. None.

Original name. Lycodon Darnleyensis Macleay, 1877:38 . William Macleay (1820–1891; Fig. 17C) was an Australian naturalist and politician, who personally financed the voyage of the sailing ship Chevert to New Guinea, the first Australian foreign exploration. He named this species for one of the islands in the Torres Strait Archipelago. The species description was presented in English. The undated photograph of Macleay (Fig. 17C; public domain) is from the archives of the AMS.

Holotype. AMS R31894 (Fig. 20; Table 1), an adult female.

Type locality. “Islands of Torres Straits and Hall Sound, New Guinea ” [Darnley Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia, ca. 9.5870°S, 143.7710°E, by implication]. Even though Macleay (1877) did not specify a type locality, it is unequivocally provided by the species name. Darnley (or Erub, in the indigenous language) is a small (5.5 km 2) volcanogenic island, lying only ca. 80 km off the coast of Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Collector. The Chevert anchored at Darnley Island (called Darnly Island in the ship’s log) from 31 July–12 August 1875 (Davidson 2017). There were daily trips to the island by members of the research party, so it is not possible to pinpoint the collection date with greater accuracy.

Key characteristics of the holotype. 661 (720) mm SVL + “ 6 inches ” [152] (145+) mm TL = “ 2 feet 8 inches ” [813] (865+) mm TTL . V ♀ = 198 (198), SC ♀ = 53+ (53+), SCR ♀ = O (O), D = O-17-O (17-17-15), SL E = 4+5 (4+5), SL = 9 (9), IL = 10 (10), IL G = O (5).

Key characteristics of the species. See the account of S. australis above.

Comments. The set of infralabial scales on the right side of the holotype presents one unusual feature, a fragmentation of IL9 into two small, shallow scales, each of which we counted to arrive at our count of IL = 10 L. Boulenger (1893) synonymized the species with S. cucullatus, he indicated some doubt regarding his decision by including a question mark before the species name.