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Zamenis scalaris

Zamenis scalaris

(Schinz, 1822)

GBIF:304193346

0year

ABOUT

Descriptions(1)

Zamenis scalaris (Schinz, 1822)

Specimens.

Portugal: Alfeite: BMNH 1893.12.27.14 , Aldegallega [i. e., Aldeia Galega = Montijo]: BMNH 1893.12.27.15 , Coimbra: BMNH 1893.12.27.16 .

Comments.

In preparation for his second volume of the Catalogue of Snakes (Boulenger 1894 b), Boulenger wrote to Bocage on 6 November 1893 (AHMB /CE/B43) asking for specimens of Rhinechis scalaris . Bocage presented three specimens from Portugal in the same year (NHMA /DF/ZOO/235/1/1/1/76), which were cited as Coluber scalaris by Boulenger (1894 b). Notably, no specimens from Alfeite or Montijo exist today in Portuguese collections (Santos et al. 2024).

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: 353-404, DOI: 10.3897/vz.75.e169790Pensoft via PlaziNo known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.

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CLASSIFICATION

Taxonomic Classification Tree

AnimaliaChordataSquamataColubridaeZamenisZamenis scalaris

Occurrences with images

Source Information

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

checklist

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article 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: 353-404, DOI: 10.3897/vz.75.e169790

Abstract

As part of a nineteenth century scientific network, José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage regularly sent “duplicate” specimens from the zoological collections of the National Museum of Lisbon to natural history museums across Europe. These duplicates gained exceptional significance following the 1978 fire that destroyed the Lisbon Museum’s zoological collections, making them the last surviving representatives of its historical holdings. Despite their importance for taxonomic and nomenclatural stability, the full extent of Bocage’s duplicate specimens remains poorly documented. Here we present a comprehensive and integrative revision of the herpetological material sent by Bocage to the British Museum of Natural History. We assess its historical, taxonomic and nomenclatural value, providing an illustrated and annotated catalogue of type specimens. A total of 92 specimens representing 57 species were sent from Lisbon between 1864 and 1896, including 30 type specimens for 27 nominal taxa. We provide evidence for the correction of the type locality associated with the only surviving syntype of Agama anchietae, as well as the recognition of previously unknown types of Chioglossa lusitanica, Hylambates angolensis, Hylambates cynnamomeus, Cystignathus bocagii, Hyperolius insignis, Hyperolius huillensis, Hemidactylus cessacii and Ophirhina anchietae.

Parrinha D, Calado F M G, Marques M P, Bauer A M, Ceríaco L M P, pensoft (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. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/mu7a9c accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-06-19.

CC0Published 10/22/2025View dataset
GBIF Usage Key
304193346
Dataset Key
feb63d25-76a8-4bff-bba1-156efd22611e
Origin
source
Backbone Key
9416124
Taxon ID
304F4B63F5F45BEF8CDFB423EDAA3457.taxon
Last Crawled
6/15/2026
Last Interpreted
6/15/2026
View on GBIFSource Reference