Philothamnus girardi

Philothamnus girardi Bocage, 1893 *

Specimen.

Equatorial Guinea: “ Ile d’Anno-Bom, Golfe de Guinée ”: BMNH 1946.1.6.3 [syntype, originally BMNH 1893.12.27.18; Fig. 24] .

Comments.

Bocage (1893 b, 1893 c) briefly described Philothamnus girardi based on eight specimens collected in 1892 by Francisco Newton on Anno-Bom Island and promptly presented a duplicate to the British Museum in the same year. This specimen was cited by Boulenger (1894 b) as “ one of the types ” and by Loveridge (1958) as a “ cotype ”. Hughes (1985) suggested it was one of three surviving syntypes “ and should be considered a neotype ”. Although Wallach et al. (2014) considered this specimen to be a lectotype, Hughes’ (1985) statement does not constitute a lectotype designation compliant with Article 74.5 of the Code, and therefore BMNH 1946.1.6.3 should retain the status of syntype. It is unclear if additional syntypes were sent to other European museums, making the specimen in the British Museum the only known surviving type.