Tomopterna tuberculosa (Boulenger, 1882)

Parrinha, Diogo, Calado, Francisco M. G., Marques, Mariana P., Bauer, Aaron M. & Ceríaco, Luis M. P., 2025, Echoes of a lost museum: Revision of the herpetological collections sent by Barbosa du Bocage from the Lisbon Museum to the British Museum of Natural History, Vertebrate Zoology 75, pp. 353-404 : 353-404

Tomopterna tuberculosa (Boulenger, 1882)

Specimen.

Angola: “ W. Africa ”: BMNH RR 1933.1.6.1 [reregistered, originally BMNH 1872.2.15.6 ] .

Comments.

Günther (1865 a) described Pyxicephalus rugosus based on two specimens collected by Friedrich Welwitsch (1806–1872) at Pungo Andongo, but the name was preoccupied. Bocage sent one specimen to the British Museum in 1869 identified as “ E / 8. Pyxicephalus rugosus Gthr ? ” ( NHMA /DF/ZOO/200/1/189 ; Fig. 4 ), which was later reported by Boulenger (1882 b) when he provided the replacement name Rana tuberculosa . Despite the lack of a precise locality, the specimen likely originates from southern Angola, as Bocage (1873 a) recorded the species from “ Huilla et d’autres localités dans l’intérieur de Mossamedes ”. The specimen was reregistered in 1933 and is currently catalogued as BMNH RR 1933.1.6.1 , although it certainly corresponds to BMNH 1872.2.15.6 , the only specimen sent by Bocage as Pyxicephalus rugosus in the British Museum records and still identified with a label bearing the number mentioned in the 1869 letter (i. e., “ E / 8 ”).

Figures

Figure 4. Extract of letter from Bocage to Günther dated 24 May 1869 (NHMA / DF / ZOO / 200 / 1 / 189) mentioning specimens sent via R. B. Sharpe, including “ Hyperolius huillensis nov. sp. ” and “ Bufo benguellensis nov. sp. ”, years before the descriptions were published.