Liophis janii

Liophis janii Dugès, 1865

The type specimen had apparently been lost by the time Smith & Necker visited the collection, and they designated a topotype from some material that they had previously examined in the US National Museum (USNM 9889) as the neotype (Smith & Necker 1943). They did not describe the neotype, but rather transcribed the original description in French by Dugès. Tanner (1946:49) also commented that two specimens in the USNM (9889 and 11369) had been collected by Dugès from Guanajuato, Mexico and “ … may represent type material ”, thereby independently reaching the same conclusion as did Smith and Necker. There is no indication in Dugès description (1865) that he had sent any other specimen to the USNM or ANSP (Cochran 1961; Malnate 1971).

According to Dugès (1865:32), the specimen was from Guanajuato, and a comment at the end of the paper “Quelquefois la tache du cou est séparée en trois, deux latérals et la languette médiane” (Sometimes the neck spot is separated in three parts, two at the sides and the stripe in the middle) suggests that he had more than one specimen when describing this taxon. We found a specimen at MADUG (HE 102, Fig. 7 C) from Guanajuato that has more or less the same dimensions as those given by Dugès in the original description (head width: 10.2 mm, head length: 14.5mm, SVL: 300mm, body width: 14mm, tail: 53mm); this specimen also has the characteristic neck marks as described by Dugès (1865:32). The original tag bears the locality Guanajuato, as in the original description. We consider this specimen to be the holotype and the one that Dugès originally described. Therefore, the designation of a neotype by Smith and Necker was incorrect.

Current valid name: Hypsiglena janii (Dugès, 1865) .